2024 Summer Camp Dates:

• June 16-21: Grades 6-12 and Leaders in Training
• June 23-28: Grades 3-9 and Leaders in Training
• June 29-30: Family Camp for all ages
• July 7-12: Grades 3-9 and mini camp
• July 14-19: Grades 3-9 and mini camp
• July 21-26: Grades 3-9 and mini camp

What's the same?

• Community
• farm-to-table
• fields, forests
• friends
• creative prayer and worship
• bunny yoga
• silly songs
• campfires in the woods
• Sunday-Tuesday mini camp for rising 2nd and 3rd graders;
• experiential play and learning
• God’s love for you- no exceptions!

What's new?

• the animal barn and outdoor amphitheater
• guests each week teaching specials like blacksmithing, improv, and contra dancing
• a two week Leaders in Training program for rising 11th and 12th graders
• exciting fresh programming
• new friends, counselors, plants, and animals!

Each Bellwether Farm Summer Camp is a small, weeklong camp centered on the beauty of all things great and small. Campers participate in a variety of activities stemming from and connected to our farm, fields, and forests. Activities include animal time with goats, sheep, chickens and more, foraging, creeking, swimming, reading, singing, cooking, hiking, fishing, farming, canoeing, archery, and arts and crafts. Reflection, prayer, and discussion are also incorporated into the day-to-day life of the community. Campers will reside in cabins with up to 8 campers and 2 counselors, organized by age and gender identity. Bathhouses are a short walk away. All meals are farm-to-table and emphasize the connection of our bodies to God’s creation.

A Mini Camp is offered to rising 2nd and 3rd graders as a “taste” of weeklong camp. Mini-campers will be integrated into the life of the camp starting Sunday afternoon, and depart on Tuesday evening. 

Specialty Camps include all traditional camp activities in addition to a focus on specialty subjects that integrate into the life of Bellwether Farm. 

Theater Camp will emphasize the dramatic and spoken word as powerful forms of meaning and self expression. Campers will practice storytelling, poetry, and script reading, as well as other thespian activities. The community will also develop and create a show, culminating in a final performance. This camp is focused on finding meaning in the written word and finding the voice and confidence to express it. 

Music and Visual Arts Camp will incorporate choral singing, vocal exercises, percussion instruments, and other musical activities. No experience is required, although if you play an instrument, you will be welcome to bring it. Campers will also participate in creating nature art inspired by the landscape, including weaving, print-making, painting, and collage. This camp is focused on finding fun in musical and artistic community, as well as building understanding, skill, and self expression. 

Family Camp: Families and "chosen family" of all ages are invited for an overnight camp at Bellwether Farm on July 1-2. Families will enjoy farm to table meals, traditional camp activities like fishing, hiking, arts and crafts, canoeing, and swimming, and community worship, prayer, and discussion. Check-in begins on Saturday morning and activities continue through Sunday lunch at noon, after which is departure.

**If you would like an exception to the listed age ranges (to include a sibling, etc.), please contact us.**

Summer Camp at Bellwether Farm – Diversity and Inclusion

Bellwether Farm was created as a place where people of every age, background, faith, and self-understanding might experience God’s unyielding acceptance and become bellwethers of God’s unconditional love, themselves. As a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio, we strive always to create a community of honesty, security, generosity, and respect. Following the model of Jesus, we seek to provide a spiritually, emotionally, and physically safe environment for all to grow in relationship to God, to the creation, and to one another.

To that end, the Summer Camp at Bellwether Farm welcomes children, youth, and staff without regard to race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical ability. We will strive, to the best of our ability, to make each camper’s experience one of support and encouragement, understanding that genuine inclusivity requires something of everyone and costs each of us the price of putting the other before our own self. Consequently, we will not tolerate harassment, discrimination, or bullying.

We do not expect or require of another person any specific definition or understanding of the divine. Rather, we work to help all open their minds and hearts to the mystery and complexity of life all around them, making room for the rich, if sometimes challenging, diversity of differences that God has fashioned in each of us and in the natural world. It is our intention to deepen every participant’s understanding of environmental fidelity, physical and spiritual wellness, nutrition, local food sourcing, resource conservation, and sustainability.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions or concerns about the mission and intention of Bellwether Farm and its Summer Camp program.

The Rt. Rev. Mark Hollingsworth, Jr.
11th Bishop of Ohio