From the Rector…
It’s all for the kids! That is the mantra of Sawyerville. Sawyerville is a diocesan-wide outreach experience in Hale County, Alabama. Though the current three weeks of summer VBS style camp and month long Summer Learning program now take place in Greensboro, it originated in the small town of Sawyerville as a VBS mission of the local Episcopal church. It soon outgrew the efforts of St. Paul’s and the diocese became involved. Now it is run, staffed, and funded by the diocese and her churches.
Our last in-gathering project at CoA was for pool noodles, beach towels, and bathing suits for Sawyerville. There isn’t a pool in Hale County and nowhere to purchase these items. Donations like ours help these kids get to do something they wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to do. Every day three school buses pull up to the front of the school and load up the campers, their counselors, and program staff. We then make the thirty minute plus drive to Marion Military Institute to swim in their pool. The bus ride going and coming is non-stop singing, including songs like “Black Socks” and “My dog Lima” which we sang back in my days at Camp McDowell.
The pool is a huge hit. Most of the campers don’t know how to swim thus the need for pool noodles bent in two and zip-tied to be worn around the waist as flotation devices. Some of them work with counselors to learn to swim and get to take a swimming test where they have to swim across the pool and back and tread water for thirty seconds. Those who pass get an arm band and aren’t required to wear the pool noodle. They also get to jump off the diving board under supervision. At the end of an hour the campers get out of the pool, change, and load the busses for the hot drive back to Sawyerville.
At Sawyerville campers are fed breakfast, lunch, and snack. They go to program and have small group break-out times where they make arts and crafts, do science experiments, and dig deeper into the Bible story of the day. In between they sing and cheer and have the best day ever. Drop-off and pick-up are filled with cheering counselors welcoming them to the day and saying goodbye. It makes the campers feel special, valued, and loved.
After the campers have gone, the counselors have some down time before they prepare for the next day. At the end of the day they pray together.
The counselors live at the school for the week. They sleep in an empty classroom and shower in the school’s locker rooms—which are, in a word, disgusting. There is no hot water, they are big-ridden and filthy. But these teenagers from across our diocese love it and are dedicated to this mission with a passion. They manifest the truth that it is ALL FOR THE KIDS!
Mission at its best is about relationships. The relationships that the youth of our diocese have established at Sawyerville are deep. The counselors are not only Episcopalian, they include a lot of teens who grew up as campers at Sawyerville and want to continue to be a part of it in leadership ways. Over the years, the diocese has worked to improve the school where the camp takes place, partnered with community agencies in Hale County to continue to make a difference, and has helped Sawyerville students go to college.
Sawyerville is a positive, healthy, transformative opportunity in one of the poorest places, not only in Alabama, but in the country. It’s far-reaching effects will not only be felt in the lives of the children at Sawyerville but in the lives of the youth and adults who volunteer—giving not just of their time but also their hearts. Thank you for keeping Sawyerville in your thoughts and prayers and for participating in our in-gathering. No matter how small or great the effort—it’s all for the kids!