News

May 12, 2023

EV teacher leads historic summer camp

Crismon Elementary School teacher Sarah Amos has a summer job as director of St.

Crismon Elementary School teacher Sarah Amos has a summer job as director of St. Joseph's Youth Camp near Flagstaff. (David Minton/Arizonan Staff Photographer)

St. Joseph's Youth Camp has hit some difficult times ahead of this year's summer camp season and a Mesa Public Schools teacher is trying to get it over the hurdle.

Named for its pioneering leader, Joe Schmidt, the non-denominational camp 23 miles southeast of Flagstaff has provided more than 20,000 Valley youth ages 7-17 with week-long overnight camps "to get outdoors, learn from nature, and have fun" since 1949.

This year, from June 11 through July 8, the camp will host four weeklong overnight camps for youth to enjoy a variety of quintessential outdoor activities such as horseback riding, kayaking, hiking, archery, shelter building, astronomy and telescope nights, skit night, and songs around a campfire.

As Crismon Elementary School teacher Sarah Amos enters her sixth year as St. Joe's camp director, she said the nonprofit has had trouble fulfilling its mission.

"We’re having a hard time getting counselors in the last couple of years," Amos said. "And I don't know why that is."

In the late 80s, Amos said she visited the camp as a child and now has watched some traditions go by the wayside – like fishing in nearby Mormon Lake, which has dried up to a small meadow in recent years – while new traditions like "Flagstaff Extreme" have become popular.

From June 11-17, "Teen Week" hosts youth age 13-15 who embark on the Flagstaff Extreme Adventure Course, a high-rope course with zip lines and nets to crawl over among other various obstacles "a couple hundred feet off the ground."

From June 18-24, "Catholic Week" honors the camp's Catholic roots. Kids of only the Catholic faith reconnect with nature and their faith.

The last two weeks, from June 25-July 1 and July 2-8, are pen to all youth age 7-12 take part in the outdoor activities and traditions.

Despite cancelling the summer 2020 because of the pandemic, Amos said that it was "extremely difficult" to come back the following year but the camp survived.

"We were in COVID protocol still –we no longer follow those procedures – but we were safe and we were able to fill our camps that year," Amos said.

Since then, Amos said, the camp has boosted its enrollment from a maximum 80 to approximately 88 campers. She said the camp limits enrollment to keep a camper-to-counselor ratio of 4-1.

Along with an onsite nurse available 24/7, the camp boasts new cabins that allow for more campers.

For more than 20 years, Amos said she made many visits and memories while her grandfather worked as the facility manager for a time and her grandmother worked as the cook until their retirement in 2006.

"It's like my second home that I get to do during the summer," Amos said.

Before it became a youth camp, St. Joe's operated as a Civilian Conservation Corps relief camp for unemployed, unmarried men that operated from 1933 to 1942.

As their most time-honored tradition, the camp prides itself on a pipeline moving kids from camper to volunteer counselor to paid staff to ensure the camp values and other camp traditions remain strong through the years.

"They understand the value of camp, and it means something to them more than just coming to camp for a weekend and just going home after that week," Amos said.

For $225, a mandatory counselor training week from June 4-10 is open to teens ages 15-17 for a plethora of life skills including CPR and first aid training, fire safety training, and various workshops on leadership, childcare and child safety. In return, teens receive 94 community service hours per week.

Amos said those life skills still don't seem to entice teenagers enough to return to the camp as volunteers.

While the camp has filled all 40 of its female counselor positions, it remains short of its goal to have 30 male counselors with only nine signed up.

Amos said she’d like to fill the counselor spots before June 4.

If the camp doesn't fill those spots, Amos said she's considered asking the currently registered counselors if they can commit to more weeks throughout the summer.

"Our staff will also have to pick up some of the slack that the lack of male counselors will have," Amos said. "Overall, the campers will not be impacted. Their experience will be exceptional and they will come away with a love for St. Joe's."

Starting at $850, campers leave on a chartered bus on Sunday afternoon from Ahwatukee and receive food and lodging, an "SJYC Shirt" and regular camp videos and pictures posted to the camp's social media, with return the following Saturday.

For information on becoming a counselor or a camper: [email protected], SJYCAZ.com or 480-449-0848.

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