The (Un) Surprising Route to the Best Life Possible
A Blog Post from Sanborn Western Camps. Reposted with permission from Ariella Rogge, Director of Sanborn Western Camps. Ariella is a friend, educator and an inspiration to us. She exemplifies the best in the world of camp.Occasionally, we come across an article that...
ITK Tips: The Magic of Camp: Safety, Connection, and Creativity
Our Goal We program intentionally, desiring that Sonlight campers and staff have fun, be creative and silly, and to laugh (a lot). We provide space for faith conversations so campers can discover and deepen their faith. Creativity, laughter and conversations happen...
ITK Tips: Missing Home
ITK Tips: Missing Home It’s easy to frame the emotions of “missing home” as “homesick”, emphasizing that it’s a sickness that should be fixed or healed. Sickness is scary and makes us feel bad. Yet missing home is a normal emotional response to thinking about family...
Leadership Position Shifts: Spring 2025
"The board is charged with designing the form of staff leadership that is appropriate for what lies ahead for Sonlight, as an organization that is continuing to grow."Navigating Change The Sonlight Board of Directors continues the work of moving Sonlight to the Next...
ITK Tips: Mail Call
Mail Call “It’s the mail that never fails, it makes me wanna wag my tail, and when it comes I want to wail, maaaiiilll” Mail time at Sonlight is a favorite daily happening in the summer. If you were ever curious how we get 70+ people to sit quietly in the dining room...
ITK Tips: Sonlight Healthcare
ITK Blog Series (ITK = In the Know) Sonlight Camp Healthcare is supervised by licensed RNs with extensive camp health experience. Our healthcare professionals desire to partner with parents to provide the best care possible for each camper. We know this starts with...
2024 Counselor In Training: Applications Open!
Counselor In Training (CIT) Applications are Open! Our Counselor In Training (CIT) applications are now open for the 2025 season! Each summer we look forward to welcoming a small handful of energetic high school leaders who want to serve a week of their summer during...
ITK Tips: Food Services at Sonlight Camp
ITK Tips (ITK = In the Know) Providing great food at Sonlight Camp is a priority. Food concerns are real. Food is cultural, familial and foundational to who we are as humans. It is both fuel and comfort–and sometimes it is a little scary when you don’t know what you...
Positive Childhood Experiences
Positive Childhood Experiences Intentional in our work! The Sonlight Leadership Team is deeply invested in the work of camp, creating a community of well-being. We know that the evidence points to the outcomes. Positive childhood experiences are the antidote to the...
It Takes Resources
Sonlight Donors Make a Difference It takes resources to be an impactful ministry that endures. Your support helps Sonlight be generous, impactful and resilient. It allows us to keep mission at the center of our decisions. Our project list was robust in 2024, and the...
Summer Staff 2025
As campers will allude to, our Summer Staff is the greatest resource Camp has. These young adults invest not just their time but passions, interests, and energy to contribute greatly to our community. Whether as a Camp Counselor, Program Support, in the kitchen, and...
From Backpacking to Adventures
From Backpacking to Adventures We are transitioning the Sonlight Backpack Program to include a broader range of adventure based activities. The benefits of getting individuals outside continually points towards areas of growth in confidence, resiliency, and shared...
Stars in a Dark Sky
Dark skies overhead and the Sonlight meadow provide the ideal space for an awe-inspiring view of the stars, planets and galexies. The generous donation of a telescope by MariJo and Jim Owens and the donation of an upgraded mount by Wayne and LeAnn Brasure provide what...
Best of Sonlight Fall
The Best of Fall at Sonlight! The aspen turn gold, pumpkin muffins are in the oven and we love the connections with our retreat groups. Women's retreats, a mens retreat and youth retreats fill our fall weekends. Most of our groups return each fall, the longest...
For the Love of Camp
Simplicity, a huge star filled sky, new friends and a solid dose of fun. Camp provides new horizons for kids. In our third week of camp we're experiencing the magic, as we work and play alongside kids. The US Play Coalition is exploring the synergies between play and...
Camp Tips #1: Eating at Camp
Food concerns are real! Food is cultural and foundational to who we are as humans. There are allergies, preferences and intolerances. It's scarey if you don't know what you will eat, if you can eat it or even like it! Sonlight food is excellent. Made from scratch with...
A Community of Well-Being
The Sonlight leadership team is intentional in our work to create a community of well-being at Sonlight Camp! New this season, Sonlight is implementing the MyView Digital Empathy screening to give youth voice in their camp experience. In collaboration with the...
Welcome Henry
The value that most impacted my life and the one that I feel like all of the others flow from is that at Sonlight everyone is loved and welcomed unconditionally. As a kid growing up, Sonlight was the place that I first truly was able to come out of my shell and feel...
The Landscape of Camp
Summer camp in 2024! The Sonlight Leadership Team strives to keep camp relevant to our campers and camp families through the seasons and through the years. Participant feedback, professional trainings and intentional connections with camp colleagues contribute to what...
Dec(orate) the Camp: Phase 1
24 youth and adults from the United Church of Los Alamos contributed a week of their time to get some deck building done! 7 decks were replaced, Phase 1 complete! Snow provided challenges, not only shoveling the decks, but ice had to be chipped and thawed from screws...
Young Adult Backpack Trips
We see you! Find connection and adventure as you climb peaks and explore wilderness. Navigating the early years of adulthood has it's challenges. Join us for a backpack trip to be in community where space is intentionally provided for conversation. You are not alone!...
Dec(orate) the Camp
Places to Connect: Join Us in Maintaining the Spaces A capital campaign! Sonlight is celebrating 45 years this summer, and there is need for structural (decks) and visual updates. This campaign is not just about boards and hardware though. The Sonlight decks,...
Leave No Trace Youth Accredited Program
Sonlight is proud to be a Leave No Trace Accredited Youth Program! A shout out to Amanda Jordan for leading the way to make it happen. Thanks to our Sonlight backpackers last summer for the great LNT videos! The Leave No Trace Youth Program Accreditation is a process...
2024: Anticipating the Good
A new year full of new opportunities! Our days are full, with summer camp registration open and summer camps filling up. Sonlight is accepting staff applications, and is in the process of staff interviews as we plan for summer staff 2024. We have the specific need for...
Transitions and Seasons
Seasons bring transitions to the rhythms of Sonlight Camp. We've wrapped up the fall retreat season, winter season is around the corner! Fall brings camp conferences, we love the opportunity to connect with camp colleagues and stay abreast of trends in the camp...
So You Want to Join Us on the Journey!
While the memories of Summer 2023 are still very fresh in our heads, we also get to start daydreaming of what Summer 2024 will hold! As we open staff applications, we wanted to share a few thoughts as to what interested applicants should consider before applying:...
Continue in What You Have Learned
Summer 2023 may be in the history books, but what we lived and learned this summer at camp carries with us as we start school, return to our families, communities and jobs. As Winston reminds us each week, Sonlight is more than a place. It's a community of people who...
Summer 2023 Launched!
Summer 2023 We are off to a solid start with Sonlight's Summer #44! We look forward to watching the story of this summer unfold. Eager for the stories and memories to be part of our story!
The World Has Three New LNT Trainers!
Leave No Trace This weekend the Sonlight staff headed to Moab for a Leave No Trace Trainer course. Amanda and Emma (2023 backpack guides) planned and led the course to help year round staff become better qualified to teach the Leave No Trace Principles. Staff learned...
CampWell: Communities of Well Being
A space to be away, a space set apart. Sonlight Camp has always been a unique place in our world and the Sonlight leadership team continues learning how to provide a place of hospitality, belonging and be a community of well being. Sonlight is privileged to have...
A Day in the Life
A Day in the Life It's what we do! The Sonlight staff have a wonderful, unique lifestyle in the winter months. We plan for summer camp and register campers. We have the privilege of hosting groups, maintaining the facility and live in community with our...
Why Wilderness
“Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”Why Wilderness Uninhabited. Primitive. Untamed. What is the wilderness and why do we need it? How does it impact...
Meet Amanda
“If everyone went on a Sonlight backpack trip there would be no schisms, no politics, no war!”Lead Guide and Backpack Apprentice New for 2023 Sonlight has implemented a Backpack Apprenticeship program, Amanda joins Sonlight in that role. Exploring the intricacies of a...
Donor Spotlight
"The reason we choose to donate to Sonlight is that we love the magic of Sonlight. Here’s what happens when we donate to Sonlight: the dollars morph into all sorts of things. Tangible and intangible, mundane, and magnificent. Those dollars become hammock villages,...
New Gear New Year
New Gear this New Year New Gear! Summer 2023 new gear includes Osprey packs and Crazy Creek chairs! The quality of backpacking equipment can make or break a trip. Broken tent poles, pack buckles or stoves can make a trip much more complicated. In the backcountry,...
Legacy for Nick
Nick will forever be remembered for his joy, compassion and all that he offered to those around him. In memory of Nick, his parents Bob and Lisa have donated funds to create a camper scholarship in Nick's name. Annually a scholarship will be awarded to a camper who...
[instagram-feed type=user]