Holy Family Camp returns to its overnight roots

Any extensive inventory of all the qualities, quirks, ministries, and culture that help to characterize the Catholic Diocese of Wichita is a tall order, but anyone who sets out to describe it probably should not wait long to mention the diocese’s Ministry With Persons With Disabilities.

And now, after a five-year detour that began with the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the MPD’s showcase events resumed its customary route.

During 2019-2024, explains MPD Director Jessica Lopez, the Holy Family Camp was a day camp, but this year it returned to its roots and reinstated the longstanding overnight structure.

“Our diocese has been doing this since 1990, and we lost part of it during Covid, but it is beautiful that Bishop Kemme has supported getting it back to an overnight format,” Lopez said. “Few dioceses have anything like our MPD, so they also do not have camps like this.”

This year’s Holy Family Camp drew 64 campers – aged 14 to 67 – as well as 60 “buddies,” volunteers who partnered and engaged in all activities with a specific camper during the course of the camp, which ran July 20-23 at Wheat State Retreat Center between Andover and Augusta. Those activities included not only a talent show, a trivia competition, a carnival, and a dance, but also Mass, Eucharistic adoration, and confession.

“It is not necessary to be Catholic to join the camp, and several of our campers are not, but we ask them to respect our traditions,” Lopez said. “To my knowledge, very few camps offer Mass, adoration, and a reconciliation service. Many of these individuals are nonverbal, but the priests in our diocese are fabulous, and do what they can for all our friends. We have been able to bring some into the faith because they experience God during camp. I can’t explain it, but it’s wonderful.”

Such experience of God is not limited to the campers, she adds, noting that the volunteers, who include a broad variety of buddies, from religious sisters to high school students, from young adults to medical professionals, also often depart Holy Family Camp different from how they arrived. 

“The volunteers make lifelong friends and memories,” Lopez said. “It has become a beautiful community. Buddies experience a beautiful way to get out of themselves and be more like Christ. They serve the campers, but they also get to bond with each other as they talk about their days and explore different strategies for handling situations. It’s beautiful.”

One buddy, Clarissa Gantt from Wichita’s Church of the Blessed Sacrament, attests to the beauties of buddy-hood. She returned as a buddy this year after serving as one last year. 

“I didn’t expect the compassion and kindness that is just in the atmosphere,” she said. “My favorite thing is the joy that camp seems to bring everybody, especially the campers.”

The camper with whom Gantt spent those four days last month, Josie Nowak of Wichita’s St. Anthony Parish, at first was hard-pressed to single out what she enjoys most about Holy Family Camp, and identified “everything” as her favorite. However, after further consideration, Nowak grinned, looked at Gantt, and said her favorite part of camp was “the buddies.”

On-site expertise

The return of the overnight format expands opportunities for bonding and spontaneous fun among those at the camp and helps to prevent the fun from being overly schedule-driven, Lopez reflects. 

“Instead of looking at it from the perspective of things we have to do in six hours, we can extend the time slots and run it like a true camp, with downtime and bigger events,” she said. “I joined MPD during those Covid years, and during my first few months, I kept hearing from families asking when camp was going back to overnight. Our office was discussing whether we could restart that, and I remember talking with a family that explained how their individual didn’t get out a lot, but always really looked forward to camp each year. Families know their camper will be safe and well taken care of. Conversations like that were the catalyst to convincing us we had to move back to an overnight camp.”

The day camp strove to bring back some of the most popular Holy Family Camp traditions, which in 2024 included the dance, which Lopez says is particularly popular. The 2025 camp included one too, which maintained the tradition of having last year’s royalty crown the 2025 king and queen. “It is a tradition that is ingrained in the campers,” Lopez said. “They love it so much.”

She expresses gratitude to Wichita’s Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School for hosting last year’s Holy Family Camp, but points out that – like most high schools – the school lacks a swimming pond, complete with a soft, bouncy “blob.” “Swimming was impossible at the day camp,” Lopez said. 

The opportunity for a faith-based overnight camp not only draws non-Catholics, she adds, but also attracts people from far outside the Wichita area. “A day camp model requires those families to find lodging,” she said. “Going overnight allows them to drop off their campers on Sunday and pick them up on Wednesday. Our goal is to extend camp back to a full seven days, which was not possible this year because no camp spaces had that much availability.”

Medical expertise and equipment have not been factors constraining the camp, Lopez reports. “The volunteer nursing staff stays for the entire camp, and we defer to them on any medical needs or emergencies,” she said. “Diverse medical needs are taken care of, including everyone’s medications. This year, our nursing staff even had an AED defibrillator. Many campers have profound medical needs that prevent them from attending other camps that lack that level of medical assistance.”

The AED defibrillator was made possible thanks to donations from local medical practices, Lopez notes, as are many aspects of the camp. “We definitely could not have the camp without the Special Needs Foundation,” she said. “They cover 100% of the MPD office, which allows us to do camp, and offer it at a relatively low cost for families. Even then, we never turn anyone away based on their ability to pay. Some families have 100% of their cost covered, and others help as much as they can. The Special Needs Foundation, Knights of Columbus and our Wichita diocese, are tremendous, offering not only monetary support but help that even includes coming out to help with s’mores or running the cake table at the dance.”

All that is great, assures volunteer Ella Troung, a parishioner at St. Thomas Aquinas in Wichita and a senior at Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School. 

“This is my first year, but I have a lot of friends who have been buddies who told me it would be a lot of fun,” Troung said. “I was really excited to get to be part of it this year.”