A nationally known Catholic camping and missionary organization has purchased one of Maryland’s largest summer campgrounds and will offer summer camps for youths and retreats for all within the Archdiocese of Baltimore and far beyond.
Damascus, an Ohio-based ministry that says it serves more than 50,000 with its camps and missionary outreach, has purchased the Summit Lake Christian Retreat Center in Emmitsburg from a Baptist group, and will operate summer camps for Catholic youths from sixth graders to seniors in high school. It will also give adult retreats and conferences, all aimed to reach the more than 12 million Catholics within five hours of Summit Lake.
“It’s just going to be a giant blessing. There’s nothing like this in that area when it comes to a youth retreat and camp center,” said Dan DeMatte, executive director with Damascus.
“It’s a way more densely populated area than our Midwest location,” added Noah Gilchrist, director of expansion for Damascus. “It means the world to us. We’re super excited and we’re pumped to see what God ends up doing with everything.”
Damascus has experienced a 25-year journey in ministry, stemming from the need for Catholic youths in metropolitan Columbus, Ohio, to encounter deeper transformative experiences in Christ. It has expanded to a 500-acre center in Centerburg, Ohio, serving tens of thousands yearly through summer camps, adult retreats and its traveling praise-and-worship band.
The Emmitsburg purchase began with a pair of people in the Archdiocese of Baltimore who traveled to Ohio and experienced the camp, then brought hundreds of campers from the Baltimore area over subsequent years.
“We started working with them to look for a site to rent for the summer,” DeMatte said. “It wasn’t really our plan to initially purchase a site, but then we came upon Summit Lake Camp.”
Damascus began talks with the Baptist group in charge of the Summit Lake Camp property. Damascus purchased the camp from the Baptists at what DeMatte called “a beautifully mission-oriented rate,” and will be leasing the camp back to them.
“They run it September through May for the next few years, and we run it in the summers,” he said. “In a few years, we’ll run it year-round.”
The six-day Damascus Summer Camps offer encounters from high-ropes courses to lectio divina (a form of Scripture reflection and prayer), from paintball to daily Mass, from zip lines to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
“Our faith is meant to be an adventure that we live in our everyday life,” DeMatte said. “This is all used to help facilitate what we would call high-adventure faith, faith that’s deep, contagious and joy-filled.”
DeMatte and Gilchrist noted their six-day youth camp experiences are longer than the typical two- or three-day retreat, allowing people to hear God’s voice in a powerfully atypical way.
“Those campers aren’t just being accompanied by a camp counselor, but by a missionary who has been formed on how to bring the Gospel to a young person,” said DeMatte, who noted that Damascus’ missionary-to-camper ratio is 1-to-2.77.
The basics
What: Damascus Summer Camp
Who: Catholic youths from sixth grade to incoming high school seniors
Where: Summit Lake Camp, Emmitsburg
When: Six-day experiences from June 7 to July 31
Cost: $645
Registration and information: damascus.net/summer-camp/summit-lake
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