By J.A. Dunn

LAKELAND — There was no better time for Mike Standifer than sailing on Lake Griffin during the day and sharing his faith with fellow campers at night.

He said attending summer camp at the Leesburg Retreat Center as a youth is something he wants other Florida Conference youth—of all colors—to experience.

Standifer is director of the Florida Conference Summer Camp ministry and a former camp counselor.

Last year 3,800 children attended camp. While there are no figures attached to the race of campers, an overwhelming majority are Anglo, according to Standifer.

Standifer is on a mission to make camp more ethnically representative of the Florida Conference. He plans to make that happen by cultivating relationships with ethnic churches this year in hopes more diverse children will be enrolled next year. He said there has been no intentional effort to exclude any race.

“I want to know what we need to do to make camp more accessible, vital,” Standifer said. “I know this won’t happen overnight. It takes time to get to know folks. We want to get to know people and let them tell us what we need to do to make this [diversity among campers] happen.”

The Rev. David Baldridge, chairman of the Summer Camp ministry team, said he would like more African-American, Asian, Haitian, Hispanic and Korean children participating in the fun, spiritual packed week.

“We are trying to get a better handle on this,” said Baldridge, who is pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Merritt Island. “It’s a real concern of mine. We want to extend the camp ministry and love of Jesus Christ to any- and everybody. We want to include not only race, but also the economic minority. There is scholarship money available.

“We are aggressively looking at what we can do. We don’t have all the answers but we do know that we want any child who has a desire to go to camp to be able to go.”

Baldridge has a passion for camp because he accepted Jesus Christ while at a summer camp when he was in the fifth grade. He later went on to become a camp counselor and received the call to ministry while at summer camp.

The Rev. Jackie McMillan agrees that camp is an awesome time for youth. The minister of Clearview United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg said only three of the 26 children sent by her congregation could have afforded the expense.

“They are children from the community, friends of children in the church—it doesn’t matter to us,” said McMillan, who is also part of the camp ministry team. “We want every child to know they are precious, that they are special to God. We raise money for them, they have their own fund-raisers. We want them to know that no matter their economic place in life, they can go to camp.”

“They have an encounter with Christ like no other place. It’s like all day Sunday every day and night. It’s all centered around them. It’s really incredible.”