Camp Sequanota Well Festival; A Camp Reunion or Sorts

A week and a half ago now, my household traveled to western Pennsylvania to attend a four day long festival at Camp Sequanota, which is a Lutheran summer camp that I attended as a teenager and worked at as a young adult. In fact, we, along with all of my sisters and their families, also visited Camp Sequanota last year for their 75th anniversary weekend and I wrote about that trip not long after we returned home.

I love Camp Sequanota. As a youth I always found it to be such a welcoming and accepting place. I still find it to be this way. This trip was no different.

I signed up their Well Festival this year at the recommendation/ invitation of my friend Jeremy S., who I worked with at Camp Sequanota and eventually met Mr. Katie through due to their shared work group. I initially had some ambivalence about signing up for Well Festival because some of the proposed sessions sounded more theological and philosophical than I thought me and my family might be looking to get out of a camp experience.

However, Jeremy assured me that other friends who be attending the festival and he was really looking forward to it. I am glad that I strongly considered his suggestion because my family ended up really enjoying themselves.

We did attend more worship and vesper type programs than we did last year when we visited camp for the 75th anniversary celebration. Last year, after noticing that the boys seemed to have ants in their pants, we had been hesitant to participate in religious type programs because for the most part they were later in the evening or they seemed to demand a certain amount of sitting still. However, this year, the vespers and wordship programs were scheduled not long after dinner and boys had more of an ability to sit still and enjoy what was happening.

On the first night at the Well Festival, we were treated to some amazing Celtic Music played by a band called Cormorant’s Fancy, who traveled from Gettysburg to play at the festival and were heavily featured during that evening’s Celtic vespers service. I loved that service and I was pleased that boys were able to chill out enough to enjoy it. Cormorant’s Fancy played again during the second evenings worship service and again they brought an artistic flair to the program.

Anyway, if you are in the Gettysburg/ York area and are looking to hear a great Celtic/ Civil War / Liturgical band, I recommend Cormorant’s Fancy

Of course there were many great sessions to attend during the Wheel Festival. I attended sessions about journaling, forest bathing, nature hikes, and one on technology that you can use in forest and wildlife ecology. A professional basket weaver also attended the entire festival and was on sight to help the festival participants weave baskets if they chose to do that. Most of the members of my family tried our hands at it. We all enjoyed it more than we though we would.

I brought home with me many ideas and things to ponder.

There was also ample time for recreation and catching up with old friends. And of course, a trip to Camp Sequanota is not complete without some time spent in their huge swimming pool.

One of the highlights of my trip was reconnecting with old friends. I worked at Camp Sequanota during the summers of 1998, 1999, and 2000. At the Well Festival I had time to reconnect and meet the families of old camp friends and fellow camp alumni. It was great to talk to these people and learn about their lives now.

I remember a time about two years ago when one of these friends contacted me and asked me if I thought that I ever might come to family camp at Sequanota. At that time, I thought it highly unlikely that would happen. I am so glad that Camp Sequanota had a 75th Anniversary celebration last year or I might not have been brough back into the fold.

In conclusion, I would like to say that we enjoyed our Well Festival experience and certainly drank deeply during our time at Camp Sequanota. I would like to thank my parents for sending me to Camp Sequanota as an 8th grader for the first time and continuing to support me and my sisters as we attended over the years. This is no small feat especially considering the fact that we were brought up Roman Catholic. I also thank them for supporting my decision to work there during my college summers. Love you Mom and Dad.

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