Friday, June 8 OR Friday, July 6, 2012

Check in will be from 9:45-10:15 AM
Tours begin at 10:30 AM
Pick up at 3:00 PM
(all times CDT)

After touring camp and meeting with directors, parents will leave camp and can take time to enjoy the picturesque town of Mentone before picking up their son.  If you have friends or family that have a son who just completed kindergarten-6th grade, have never camped at Alpine, and would also be interested in Rookie Day, please click here to send us their information.

Be sure to click on ‘Continuation’ at the very top of the first page to read the second page of the article.

Second Term: Saturday, June 30 – Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Junior Camp: Saturday, July 28 – Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Applications were mailed in mid-August to all families on our mailing list, including all waiting list, cancellations, and prospective camp families who have inquired in the last 18 months. To be added to our mailing list please call 256-634-4404 or email summer@alpinecamp.com.

First Term: June 13 – July 8, 2011

Second Term: July 11 – August 5, 2011

Applications will be mailed in late August to all families on our mailing list, including all waiting list, cancellations, and prospective camp families who have inquired in the last 18 months. To be added to our mailing list please call 256.634.4404 or email office@alpinecamp.com.

New this year: Online registration with credit/debit card payment (for returning earlybird campers as well)

Untitled from Alpine Camp on Vimeo.

We’re fired up because it’s time to start staff recruiting!  November is almost here and that means it’s time to strike out on the highways and byways of the South to some of the coolest places around – college towns.  Weldon, Peter, and I head out next Tuesday to Knoxville and the University of Tennessee.  We’re looking forward to getting dinner with our Tennessee staff and then doing interviews with some new prospects.  Evan Warner is setting those up so talk with him if you know a great prospect.

Wednesday will find us on the move to Nashville for a little time hanging out at Vanderbilt.  We had a great group of Vanderbilt guys last summer including Stephen Maroda, Nelson Graham, Andrew Dudas, Patterson Fenelon, Peyton Davis, and Carver Morgan.  We’ll have a reunion with these guys and are counting on interviewing a number of their friends (Stephen Maroda is setting those up).

The next week will find us at Mississippi State and Ole Miss.  New RUF pastor Brian Sorgenfrei and his wife Liza are friends of ours (and he is a former staff member), so we’re looking forward to seeing them and having dinner with all the Bulldog faithful (hopefully at Little Dooey’s, some of the best BBQ in the state of Mississippi in my opinion).  Talk to Brian or Price Davis, who’s setting our schedule, about interviews at State.

Then on to Ole Miss where Carter and the girls will join us and hopefully the O’s too.  We always have a great time staying at the Inn at Ole Miss and interviewing guys while looking out over the lovely Grove (Talk to Sumner Abraham about setting up an interview there).  3 year staff member Hammond McEver is the new RUF intern there after graduating from Washinton and Lee last May so it’ll be great to catch up with him.  And Les Newsom, longtime RUF minister there is an Alpine alum and good friend.  The highlight of the week will be staying for the weekend in Oxford to see if the Rebels can hold their own against the solid looking Tennessee Volunteers.  We’ll be setting up an Alpine tent in the Grove so please come by and see us if you’re there that weekend (more on the location later).

Tentative plans for the week before Thanksgiving call for trips to Auburn and Georgia.  More on those soon.  We also hope to travel to Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Virginia, and Washington and Lee the week after Thanksgiving.

Veteran staff, we hope to see you out on the road.  Thanks for continuing to spread the word to your friends about Alpine.

For rapids that flow,

Glenn

Cities without a location are usually at someone’s home.  For more information on a particular slide show, call our office, 256.634.4404. 

We hope to see you this fall!

Hope to see you there!

Most recently he has written a piece for PBS called “Getting Your Child Ready for Camp“.  It is a great article with very practical advice about going off to camp.  Bob has lots of other great information on his website and blog. 

Bob has been a great friend to Alpine and our family over the years and we are grateful for his contributions to camp.

Weldon Pless (far left) with Rob Langley, David Steele, Chris Kerr and Clarke Norton

Here is an essay written by Weldon Pless.  Weldon has been at Alpine every summer since he was in the first grade (only missing one summer).  This year, after he graduates from Ole Miss we are excited that he will join our full time staff.  I think you will enjoy Weldon’s reflections on camp!  

Whenever I buy new music, I buy records. And that’s not just slang for CDs. I’m talking about black, vinyl, old-timey records. The ones you put on and sit back to listen to the entire thing without stopping. To me, Alpine is a bit like those records.

Records are sort of a step back in time. You can’t skip around to your favorite tracks or put all the freshest songs on a playlist. You can’t stick in your headphones and walk around town listening to records, or even play them in your car. But there are some really good things about it too. Listening to records allows you to really listen to the music. Once I take the time to put one on, I sit there and I listen to the whole thing, and I let myself enjoy it. I listen closer to songs I might have skipped if I was listening on my iPod. Stepping back in time to listen to my music actually lets me listen better. It slows me down and holds my attention. 

The same is true of Alpine. Every summer I come back to ride horses instead of driving cars, to watch sunsets instead of watching television, and to sing songs instead of listening to the radio. It’s a step back in time, but it frees me up to really enjoy the summer. 

Sometimes during the school year I don’t give myself a chance to slow down. I never stop long enough to notice the things around me like the sounds and smells of nature that are so prominent at camp. When it rains during the school year, I put on a movie or surf the internet. When it rains at camp, I listen to it.

I also have deeper conversations with friends at camp than I usually do in my life outside. At camp there is time to really talk. Whether it’s while walking to an activity period, playing ping pong, or eating a meal, deep conversations at camp seem to rise up organically. I think it’s because we’re given a schedule and an order in our days, and it frees up our minds to dwell on other things. Alpine lets us take a step back and enjoy living, and it’s one of the biggest reasons I come back every summer.

Sumner as a camper in 2001

“The greatest thing any person can do for another is to confirm the deepest thing in him, in her—to take the time and have the discernment to see what’s most deeply there, most fully that person, and then confirm it by recognizing and encouraging it.

And then someone enters our life who isn’t looking for someone to use, is leisurely enough to find out what’s really going on in us, is secure enough not to exploit our weaknesses or attack our strengths, recognizes our inner life and understands the difficulty of living out our inner convictions, confirms what’s deepest within us. A friend.” This quote by Eugene Peterson is exactly what I got out of Alpine, a friend. The fellow campers, the staff, and the camp itself have helped shape me into the young man I am today. Jesus Christ is the number one priority at camp, and there is not a better place on earth. When I think of what Heaven will be like, the first thing that enters my head is Alpine. I have friendships with older men and people my age that I wouldn’t trade for the world; experiences that are forever engraved in my memory and on my heart; and a better grasp on where I am going and how I want to do it because of Alpine.

From my summers at Alpine I have established friendships that are ones that I consider my most dear and fruitful. I met guys my age from all over the country and the world for that matter (France and Sweden). I think there is no other way to get to know a person than to live, struggle, and succeed with them. Alpine defines what community truly is. Community is something that a Christian can’t go without and Alpine creates a blueprint for this that can be carried into the real world. I am going to college with guys that I met when I was in the fourth grade and have kept up with. Alpine provided a place where I could develop friendships with guys that weren’t based on our parents being friends or sports, but friendships that were based on the sole purpose of loving the Lord and wanting to serve him. Alpine is my “home away from home” because every time I walk through the gate I know that the people there will love me no matter what and I have true friendships with the guys there. These relationships are so special to me and are ones that will last a lifetime.

During my summers at Alpine, I was counseled by and worked with some of the greatest Christian college aged kids in the country. The staff that is assembled is outstanding. From the second you arrive at camp, you realize that you around guys who care about you as a person and want to develop a relationship with you. You can’t find that anywhere else. I know kids that have gone to different summer camps for years and can’t even tell me their counselors names. But I still keep in touch with a majority of the guys that were my counselors and love to reminisce of the memories that were made with them. Alpine is the only environment in which this type of fruitful mentorship is possible because the relationship is started with a foundation in the Lord. Through these counselors, you learn about teamwork and that happiness comes through serving others not yourself. These two lessons are practiced on a daily basis at camp and are invaluable to a young man in the world of a young adult. My counselors at Alpine have been the biggest influence on my life thus far. 

Without Alpine I don’t even want to think about where I would be right now. I was Student Body President, Co President of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Team Captain of the Basketball Team my Senior year of high school, and there is no way that any of those things would have happened to me if not for the leadership qualities and spiritual nurturing I received for Alpine. Alpine showed me what true community and fellowship really is. I was given outstanding leaders and extraordinary examples of Christ on a daily basis on one of the most beautiful places on earth. The staff, the camp itself, and the results of being associated with Alpine all point to Jesus Christ, and it is impossible to walk away from Alpine without having become a better person. Alpine is a place that I will forever be indebted to and grateful for.

Here is Sumner helping lead the way for the Alpine Step Show

We want to give credit to all those who helped with the project: Toy O’Ferrall Harmon, Weldon Pless, guitar, Montgomery Miller, guitar, Harrison Ford, banjo, Matt McDonald, violin, Andrew Terrell, cello, William Decosimo, mandolin, Kelsey Cox, djembe, Stevens Shuler, bagpipes.  This is an incredibly talented group and we are grateful for their contributions! 

Stay tuned for more songs and also some slide shows and videos from camp in the future!

It was a great weekend and we really enjoyed getting to see how so many of our staff have continued to build on the relationships they made with each other at camp. The 2008 staff is truly a great group of young men and we are excited to see so many of them returning for the 2009 summer! Click Here to See Returning Staff for 2009.

“This summer at Alpine gave me a lot of time to think.  Days on the team sports field are amazing memories.  Hardie Buck and I talked about the possibility of him walking on the Alabama football team.  He got me thinking about basketball, but I just entertained the thought and didn’t think much of it.  In the Fall I showed up to the “walk-on” tryout to just get some good games in and have some fun.  There were probably about 25 guys or so trying out for a possible 1 or 2 spots.  I never thought I would play ball again but God re-opened the door to play.  I felt like He had presented the opportunity and was excited about the opportunity to play again.  It has been great so far.  I am humbled daily as I watch the God-given talent around me and the amazing athletes at this level of college basketball.  It puts things into perspective. 

The college basketball season is a long one.  It’s exciting but tiresome, especially in the ACC.  Knocking off North Carolina and Duke this year were two very memorable games so far.  The Joel, our home arena, was pretty electric and the fans were going crazy.  Dick Vitale was calling the game for Duke and he looked pretty emotional from where I was sitting (way way at the end of the bench ).  Needless to say, both wins are very memorable and I am just excited to be along for the ride.

Nothing compares to staff basketball at Alpine.  The skill level is slightly less, but the energy is unmatched even at the college level!

God has a funny sense of humor.  I would have never pictured myself playing ball again in college, and I certainly know that I don’t belong here when it comes to skill or stature.  But this is where I am, and I’m just doing my best to enjoy every moment and walk with the Lord throughout the process.”

To many people in the United States, Russia is the nation where bears walk in the street next to bearded men and women covered in fur. For mainstream America, Russia is frozen winters and desolate Siberia. It is Boris and Natasha, Stalin and Putin, onion-domed churches, and hammers and sickles.

Because we in the US largely lack even a cursory understanding of the Russian nation, we associate it with what we have seen in books or on TV and attach to it a wealth of symbols. One of these is that of the nesting doll. On the outside, it brightly depicts a young woman dressed in a traditional colorful Russian sarafan. Inside of that outer doll is a smaller replica, and inside of that one is another, even smaller replica, and so on. I feel that the image of the nesting doll, with its multiple dolls hidden away inside of its larger self, is an appropriate representation of Russia itself, telling us that only in looking deeply into Russia, by undoing its many layers, can its treasures be found.

After lending Alpine my horseback skills (my name already bares resemblance to a celebrity, but I feel it would have been more appropriate as John Wayne) in the summer of 2008, I traded my home in rural Blue Springs, Mississippi (population: cattle and ne’er-do-wells) for the urban sprawl of St. Petersburg, Russia in accordance with the requirements for my International Studies major at the University of Mississippi.

Established in 1703 by Czar Peter the Great, St. Petersburg was created to be Russia’s “Window to Europe.” Attempting to turn his nation away from the political and societal backwardness it had been stuck in, Peter set out to make St. Petersburg into the cultural capital of Russia. It soon surpassed the opulence of other European capitals and its nobility helped create the cultural capital not only of Russia, but of all Eastern Europe (or, as Russians tend to not-so-meekly argue, the cultural capital of the world).

I walked the streets lined with 18th century, pink, green, and light blue facades that inspired Pushkin’s poetry, visited the apartment of Dostoevsky, crossed the bridges Akhmatova traversed. In my first month, I sought out, with great fervor, to soak up the cultural experiences that the city offered in such generous supply.

After that first month, however, I began to feel that my experience was lacking. This set me at unease. I came to Russia to experience the culture, but now, after trying so hard, I felt empty. I had even watched Swan Lake in its native Mariinsky Theatre! It was absurd to me that I could be feeling that kind of void and disconnect with the Russian culture that I had worked so hard to integrate myself into.

Relief came to me in the form of a 70 year old Russian grandmother. She, for four months, was my guide, language tutor, cook, and (before I told her about my American girlfriend) vowed to find me a suitable Russian wife. She was, as she put it, my “Russian mother.” I shared her and her husband’s three room apartment in the prestigious city center for the duration of my stay in St. Petersburg. Vivacious and stocky, Natasha was whole-heartedly devoted to exposing me to the Russia that she knew and loved. After preparing a variety of Russian dishes for me (one of which included cow tongue), she would always break into a smile as large the nation itself and say, “Dlya Tebya, Moi Dorogoi” (“For you, my dear”).

I had made myself very unavailable to our little trans-continental family for the first month of my stay because of my packed schedule of cultural undertakings. The Russian climate, however, decided to change this situation. As the snow and biting cold began to settle in to St. Petersburg, so did I. Instead of going out every night, I would sometimes opt to stay in my apartment rather than fight the elements. As I did this, I drew closer to my Russian family, and, as I did, I realized what I was missing in my experience of Russia. My housemother and housefather, through their overwhelming acts of kindness and compassion for me began to help me pull back the layers of their nation. With every meal my housemother fed me and with every bit of inane, but well intentioned, piece of advice my housefather would give me about Russian women, I began to unearth the treasures of Russia. It wasn’t the theaters or the museums that made Russia, it was the people I saw every day. I had previously thought that the Russian people were calloused and rude, but, as I began to develop friendships with other Russians, I began to see that this was a front developed after living for centuries in oppression. As I began to engage the people around me, I found that the Russian people are the most hospitable individuals I have ever met.

Of course, this is a lesson that I had been taught earlier in the summer, but had forgotten. Alpine, on one level, is Lookout Mountain, Little River, the dining hall, the potato shed, and so many other visual symbols I connect with it. But, once you start pulling back the layers, the single most important element of Alpine, the one that connects with your soul, is the relationships made there. Alpine offers many temporal pleasures for campers and counselors, whether it be the fun had at PA or the serenity of hearing the rushing waters of the river as you fall asleep. The greatest gift that Alpine gives us, however, is eternal. Through the face of a camper riding a horse for the first time, the knowing glance Mr. O gives the counselor walking near the Staff Lounge (even though it isn’t his off period), or the many laughs shared amongst friends, it is evident that the most rewarding aspect of Alpine is the ability to create relationships that will last a lifetime.

Winston Churchill once said that Russia “is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” From the outside, it definitely seems that way, but, when you undo the nesting doll that is Russia itself, it reveals its many hidden layers. After undoing Russia’s doll, you come to the last, smallest doll, and it is a smiling, colorful Russian. I feel that when you look at that smallest doll, you have found the true treasure of not only Russia, but of mankind in general: friends, family, and community, boiled down into that one small, colorful, smiling person.

“It has been a blessing beyond belief to get to experience Alpine for the first time the summer before my senior year of college.  Next semester brings with it a lot of complicated questions – what should I do after I graduate? How am I supposed to make money?  Where is this girl I’m supposed to marry?  With all of those complicated questions, it has been amazing to come somewhere that is inherently simple - wake up, worship God, love kids, go to sleep.  Simple.” 

Cabin counselors are responsible for the well being of their campers and serve as a mom, dad, coach, teacher, friend, etc. to these boys.  These are the boys with whom you will build the best relationship.  The cabin counselor is responsible for being with his cabin at all times including (but not limited to!) meals, night program, glee club, block periods, morning watch, cabin inspection, rest hour, shower period, and devotionals.  

The second responsibility of a counselor (and equally important) is to serve as an activity instructor.  During the day the boys in your cabin participate in activities based on a schedule they choose.  Each counselor teaches an activity, specializing in the same activity all summer. Each activity has an activity head who is in charge of the activity, and all activity leaders are responsible for running a fun and safe activity each day.  Here is a list of activities offered at Alpine.

Secondly, we feel like the whole summer is crucial for the individual growth of each counselor.  Like any service work any of us ever do, the servant always gets as much if not more from the service as the one being served.  This is definitely the case with counselors at Alpine.  It is a huge growth opportunity for staff.  We feel like guys could probably do this job for a month or even 6 weeks and walk away a little tired but not really changed or affected dramatically.  It is during the course of an entire summer that we have seen the Lord work in all of our hearts and minds and attitudes year in and year out.  It is when you are tired or frustrated and feel like you don’t have any more to give that you learn to depend on the strength that only the Lord can give.  And it is this tremendous stretching of our faith that allows us to leave here absolutely worn out and at the same time knowing that we will never be the same because of what we learned about ourselves over the course of an entire summer.

” In no time at all Alpine’s embrace felt familiar to me, and throughout the summer I felt simultaneously the thrill of being part of an exciting adventure and the comfort of being at home, where things were in their proper order.  To grow such an environment, where one can experience this wonderful paradox of emotions, is a marvel.  I praise God for what has been grown over the years at Alpine, for the ways he has convicted you and used you to His glory, for the impression Alpine has made on young men and boys, and for the extent that Alpine furthers His Kingdom.  I am thankful to have been part of the Alpine adventure story.”

Drew Allison
Parker Berry
Nathan Bosshardt
John Carpenter
Kelsey Cox
William Denney
Brian Donald
Mark Ellis
Harrison Ford
Matt Glover
Ben Kenna
Jared Kimmel
Allen King
Montgomery Miller
Will Nettleton
Weldon  Pless
Leck Shannon
Adam Shields
Chase Wynn

Keep checking back for more names.