The gong of a distant bell gently pulls you out of sleep. There’s a slight chill in the air, making you want to curl tighter into your bed while the sounds of the morning surround you. You open your eyes to look up at wooden rafters, patterned with commemorative boards of campers from years past. It’s another day at camp. But you haven’t been a camper for more than a decade.
No, this is not a dream. You’re at Camp Desoto’s Women’s Weekend!
Camp Desoto, a Christian girls camp atop Lookout Mountain in the uppermost corner of Alabama, has served as a summer destination for more than a century. While the property was originally developed as a boys’ camp in 1922, Camp Desoto’s founders purchased the camp in 1945 and have served hundreds of girls each summer ever since.
My mom and I were two of those girls. In many ways, we still are. My mom (Lyn) attended Camp Desoto from 1972–1976 and served as a counselor in 1979. Years later, I (Lauren) was a camper from 2004–2008, followed by a term on Serve Staff in 2012. And two Septembers ago, we attended Camp Desoto’s Women’s Weekend — two nights and three days of fellowship, the best food, and many of the activities we enjoyed as campers. As alumni who regularly dream about being back at camp, it was everything we wanted and more. And it showed us that camp is just as relevant for us as adults as it was in our teens.
Lyn's Perspective
I was introduced to Camp Desoto as I was coming out of elementary school. I remember being invited to a friend’s house for a viewing of the camp film — something the directors took on the road so that young girls and their parents could get a feel for what camp was like. I was immediately hooked, and camp didn’t let me down.
Every summer, I would eagerly pack my trunk and head to the mountain. Growing up with two older brothers and five male cousins nearby, camp gave me the sisters that were missing in my life. I loved the fellowship and friendships, but also the campfires and competitions. Camp gave me a sense of adventure and independence and taught me that I could do many things if I just gave them a try.
This camp was and is special — not fancy or pretentious, but rather a peaceful oasis in a world that can be overwhelming. It instills core values in its campers and empowers young women to be the best they can be. For me, it was a place I could retreat to every summer and find renewal. I looked up to the counselors — college-aged girls who devoted their summer to the campers.
Having the opportunity to finally be able to serve as a counselor myself was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Spending a whole summer on the mountain allowed me to give back and pay forward all of the care that I had been given while a camper.
When Lauren was growing up, I wanted the same experience for her. While we were there decades apart, the steadfast values of camp never changed. Sharing that same sense of place with a daughter is truly special.
Lauren's Perspective
Unlike my mom, I bounced around camps before settling in at Desoto. I’d never attended a session longer than two weeks, so the idea of being away from home for a month was both daunting and exciting. And while I was homesick every single year (if only for the first few days), I kept going back. I kept trying new activities and going on adventures. I kept building formative, lifelong friendships, and I kept molding a Desoto-shaped space in my heart that remains to this day.
While our camp memories have always existed decades apart, the Women’s Weekend gave us a few real-time moments to share together. And of course, we weren’t the only ones there. Roughly 30 other women, spanning from early college years to late 70s, all gathered at camp for a few days to retreat, unplug, and enjoy our own little camp community. And despite the generational differences, the feeling and nostalgia of being campers again lit a light in all of us.
It was incredible to watch and listen (and participate) as the women laughed in cabins, leapt off the zipline, and belted songs in the dining hall. Songs that we hadn’t heard or even thought about in years came flooding back to our minds, our muscles suddenly remembering line dance moves, instinctively knowing our way around camp despite how much it had changed over the years.
Point being, it became so clear that camp experiences are critical, especially in the formative years of childhood and adolescence. They play such an important role in the women we’ve grown up to be — and the girls we still are when we drive through the camp gates.
Better yet? The benefits we received as campers and staff members are still relevant today. Over the course of the weekend, we had the chance to make new friends, try new things, take risks, be brave, unplug, build new skills, enjoy and appreciate nature, and remember the value of wearing closed-toed shoes at night.
Like us, many of the women in attendance were once campers or staff members themselves. Others were moms of daughters who had once camped and were now getting their own experience. There were even a couple of women who not only had never heard of Desoto before, but they had never once been to summer camp! They’d simply sought an adult summer camp experience, and now they, too, are Desoto girls for life.
In addition to the Women’s Weekend, Camp Desoto offers a weekend-long Family Camp. What better way to expand your camp’s horizons? Sure, there are logistics of bringing in staff for the weekend and providing food, but the investment is so worth it. Not only does it give your camp an opportunity to reach new people, but it also creates a stronger alumni base, brings in an additional source of revenue, cultivates potential new donors, provides lasting memories, and so much more.
By Sunday afternoon, after we’d had our fill of ice cream with honey, horseback riding, and a few last songs, it was time to pack up and drive back down the mountain. Exhausted in the best way, we left with smiles on our faces and fresh new camp memories to carry home. Camp Desoto has an old song that goes:
I wanna go back, I wanna go back to Camp Desoto.
I wanna go back to the camp I love!
Not only do we wanna go back, but after this weekend, we absolutely will go back.
Lauren McMillin is the public relations and communications manager for the American Camp Association.
Lyn McMillin is an active community volunteer and serves in national leadership with The Garden Club of America, where she advocates for conservation and native plants. She and her husband, David, reside in Madison, Mississippi.
