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From the 2019 Smarty Summer Camp Guide: Camp Trinity

written by Guest Blogger February 21, 2019

By Smarty Guest Blogger, Mary Beth Bradberry, Assistant Director, Trinity Center, and Director, Camp Trinity

Hi. My name is Mary Beth Bradberry, and I am Assistant Director of Trinity Center as well as Director of Camp Trinity. I want to share with you some information about Camp Trinity, which is the overnight residential summer camp of the Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina. Camp Trinity is a part of Trinity Center, and Trinity Center is located on sixty-two acres on Bogue Banks just off the coast of North Carolina and just down the road from Atlantic Beach.

Before I tell you about Camp Trinity, let me share a bit about myself. I started coming to Camp Trinity when I was ten years old and have been in love with the place and its ministry ever since. I worked on staff for Penn Perry, who was at that time Director of Camp Trinity and who is now Executive Director of Trinity Center. Penn has worked for Camp Trinity and Trinity Center for over thirty years, since he was eighteen years old. He and I both believe deeply in what Camp Trinity has to offer.

Camp Trinity is a traditional camp that offers a balance of supervised group activities and individual free time. Some of our daily activities include: swimming instruction, sailing, kayaking, paddleboarding, sports, Christian Education, evening programs (carnival, twilight swim, dance night, etc.), crafts, beach games, and more. All daily activities are tailored to fit the age group of your camper’s session. We offer sessions for young people rising 2-12 grades.
Campers get a chance to set aside their everyday schedules, comforts, and pressures to enter a community that allows them to develop spiritual practices and friendships that can last a lifetime. Campers are given time and space to recognize and celebrate the simple and often ordinary joys of Christian Community. From kitchen patrol to campfire circle, beach games to paddle boarding on the sound, campers are asked to embrace community while finding themselves. Camp allows children to “unplug” from the outside world. Connections are formed through talking with one another, sharing meals with new-found friends, participating in fun games and programs, and laughing with each other, all while building lasting relationships with God, self, and others.

Camp Trinity invites campers to share daily in a Christian formation program that helps them grow spiritually and emotionally. Camp Trinity practices radical hospitality and provides camping experiences that are diverse, inclusive, loving, and affirming, while challenging each person to be responsible to and for the other. Campers have the chance to build and live in an intentionally Christ centered community so that each camper might gain a deeper understanding of and appreciation for his or her own skills, abilities, and gifts. It’s a great introduction to overnight summer camp in a safe, structured, reassuring, empowering, and encouraging environment.

Camp Trinity is proud to be accredited by the American Camping Association. Developed exclusively for the camp industry, this nationally recognized program focuses on program quality and health and safety issues and requires us to review every facet of our operation. If you would like more information about Camp Trinity, feel free to contact me. I would be happy to talk with you about all that we have to offer. If you and your child or children would like a tour of camp, I would be happy to make that possible. Camp Trinity has been a very special home away from home for countless children over the past thirty years. We hope it can be just such a place for your children.