Edmund Rice Camps in the United States
Presence - Compassion - Liberation
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Camp in New Rochelle

The first Edmund Rice Camp on the East Coast of the United States was conducted on the campus of Iona Prep June 28 – July 2, 2009. Edmund Rice camps are a movement which began in Australia and have been spreading around the world in which young people, in the spirit of Edmund Rice, conduct free summer camps for the disadvantaged.

Msgr. Howard Calkins, pastor of Sacred Heart parish in Mt. Vernon and an Iona Prep alumnus, provided most of the campers, as well as great encouragement, and support. Other campers came from Sacred Heart parish in Manhattan. Campers participated in periods of art, crafts, rocket construction and launching, robotics demonstrations, random science demonstrations, and a variety of indoor and outdoor sports. The counselors from Iona Prep were provided with an immersion experience of serving the poor in the spirit of Edmund Rice. Six experienced Edmund Rice Camp Counselors joined us from Chicago, providing support and wisdom. Brothers Paul Ickes and Bosco Martin from Chicago, and Lucian Knaap from New York City, joined Tony Reynolds and William Harris at Iona Prep as overall supervisors.

Preparations for the camp began the previous year when the Prep’s Campus Minister (William Harris) and Principal (George Teasdale), along with three Prep students attended the Edmund Rice Camp at Br. Rice High School in Chicago. They returned energized by what they had seen and anxious to adapt Br. Rice’s camp model to the facilities at Iona Prep.

In preparation for the camp, Iona’s Edmund Rice Society held monthly meetings which included planning sessions and instruction in group dynamics, heart-centered spirituality, and the charism of Edmund Rice. Meanwhile they engaged in several fund-raising activities to support the camp, which was run at no cost to the campers, their families, or Iona Prep.

Prep parents contributed by doing the shopping, preparing the lunches and snacks for the campers, and housing the counselors from Chicago. Even the weather cooperated with more consecutive rain-free days than New York had experienced in months.

The final day of the camp included a kind of water-park set up on a sloping part of the campus. Campers and counselors participated together in water balloon fights, water slides, launching of a huge water rocket, and the like. The single rainy afternoon was filled with ping pong, volleyball, and a movie.

The camp exceeded all expectations in providing the campers with a wonderful experience and simultaneously providing the counselors with an experience of living the charism of Edmund Rice who “was moved by the Holy Spirit to see Christ present and appealing to him in the poor.”

Thanks go to Gaetano Vitiello, Iona’s Director of Student Activities, and Nurse Helen Fay, who used vacation time to work the camp without pay. Thanks also to Principal George Teasdale for his enthusiastic support.