An Interview with Alyssa Horton, Activities Team
What all does Activities at the Lake do?
The Hume Lake Adventure Program provides opportunities for spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical growth through adventure activities of all kinds. The Activities Department strives to be an industry-leading adventure-learning facility by providing highly relevant, energetic, and quality programs to our campers. We use adventure activities as tools to teach spiritual truths, life skills, and leadership principles to participants of all ages and abilities. We facilitate high adventure courses, paintball, a skate park, escape rooms, archery, pools, a blob, roller skating, a rope swing into the lake, boating on the lake, snowboard run, hatchets, tube run, ice skating, mechanical bull, Reball, jeep tours, and disc golf all year round depending on various camp seasons.
What involvement does the Activities Department have in camper recreation in the summer?
Campers get to enjoy all our summer activities during their free time after lunch until 6:00 pm. Some of the kids’ favorite activities are renting paddleboards, canoes, kayaks, row boats, etc, on the lake. We even have a giant stand-up paddleboard that can hold ten people at a time! There are three different high adventure ropes courses. The sawmill course contains an element called “the plunge,” where high school campers step off a 60-foot platform where they free fall for six feet. Meadow Ranch junior high camp has a giant swing where kids can be pulled up to 25 feet high before swinging. The inspiration ropes course towers over the ridge of Hume Lake, creating an advanced course for kids ages 12 and up. Two of our three courses end with ziplines. Wagon Train Elementary camp also has its own elements where they enjoy their own zipline along with activities such as rappelling. A few other camp favorites include swimming at the pools, paintball, archery, our brand-new escape rooms, and the skate park! Activities also facilitate special evening activities in Ponderosa high school camp, such as “the gauntlet” and the bike jump. For the gauntlet, one counselor from each recreation team runs across an obstacle course on the lake before facing a staff member they attempt to push in the water. For the bike jump, one camper from each team rides a bike off a ramp on the dock into the lake. These are absolute camper favorites as they all watch on the lake lawn!
The Activities staff have such a tremendous ministry being ones that interact with guests and campers on a regular basis- any stories?
One of my High adventure guides shared with me a meaningful interaction with one of the Wagon Train Campers recently. When he came to the archery session in the morning, he was very shy and nervous about trying it. He was holding his bow completely backward and wasn’t feeling confident about trying. My staff member took time to break down how to do it and showed him step by step. That afternoon the camper returned and played in the tournament all afternoon from 1:00-5:00 pm. He loved it so much that he ended up winning the entire tournament and was beaming with excitement!
This plays right into our mission of coming alongside kids, believing in them, guiding them, and showing them how to push themselves to grow and challenge themselves.
How can we be praying for your staff this summer?
Activities is a high-paced, extroverted, all-in environment which is extremely fun but quite tiring. Please pray for our 18 lifeguards and 22 high adventure staff members to find time to refresh and rest this summer. As much as they love their jobs, they also need to stay healthy and find space to breathe! We could also use prayer for the overall safety of the campers as we facilitate intense outdoor activities.