Alumnae Involvement: Adopt a Staffer Program

We firmly believe that caring for our campers starts with helping our staff feel supported. Counselors who are feeling valued, heard, and appreciated in their jobs have more joy and energy and patience to give to the girls - that love trickles down! More than that though, we genuinely are in awe of what our staff does each summer. We know nothing we can say will ever be enough to thank them, but we want to do everything we can to encourage them as they do this meaningful work.

This year we tried something completely new to huge success: our Adopt a Staffer program! We started thinking: our counselors hear “thank you” from us all summer long, but how much more impactful would it be for them to hear from more voices, and who better to know what it’s like than the people who came before, our alums?

So mid-summer we reached out to the alumnae group we’d seen the most recently (those who came to our 100 year Reunion!) and offered the opportunity to claim a staff member to pray for and support the rest of the summer. We received so many kind responses - in fact, it was the perfect amount so that every single college-aged staff member was able to be matched with an alum! The task was simple: pray for your staffer and send a piece of mail, whether that be a handwritten note or a small package. Our hope was that each counselor would know that she was being covered in prayer by someone from our larger Greystone community who was grateful for her work.

It’s safe to say the program was a huge success, and to hear a little more about it, we reached out to a few counselors who particularly appreciated their match:

“My match wrote me an extensive letter giving me all the counselor wisdom and telling me about her life post-camp. She also sent me the sweetest care package with some of my favorite snacks and a sweet note. All-in-all, the program helped make the harder days at camp a little easier through the encouragement and love of my match.” - Anna Ruth Morrison

“My match turned out to be such a great mentor for the summer. She first reached out by writing a letter to me and I still have kept this letter as it was full of encouragement. We kept in touch through letters and texting. Every day off that I had, we would talk and chat. This was special to me because it allowed me to talk to someone who went through this experience at a different point in time. My alum was someone who I ended up having lots of connections, and we keep up with each other to this day!” - Jennings Searcy

“My match sent me an email, snail-mail, and a package. The email was so sweet and detailed and my match was able to make a lot of connections between us. I could tell that she had really paid attention to my staff bio and who I am. I responded to her email with information about myself and my campers along with specific prayer requests for our time together. Soon after, I received a beautiful and prayer-filled letter in the mail addressing my prayer requests and giving me encouragement. I wrote her back and then got a big package in the mail. Each item had an encouraging message or Bible verse connected to it. Campers get a lot of mail and emails and as a counselor, it was so nice to get a little mail of my own. It was such a boost to my mood to hear from my match. To know that someone in the Greystone family was specifically praying for my girls and me meant the world.” - Margaret Stacy

“The letter came at the most perfect time too! I remember it was a day where I was extra worn out, and I had a bunch of different tasks pulling my attention in different directions. Her words picked me right back up and brought about a sense of peace during a crazy time. I would just like to express gratitude to her and everyone that participated in this program. Your prayers, words of encouragement, and advice meant so much to us this summer. It really felt like we had a team rallying behind us and cheering us on for the duration of the summer!” - Elizabeth Robertson

We can’t wrap this up without giving an enormous thank you to all the alumnae who participated and adopted a counselor for this summer. Each of you went above and beyond to encourage and love on our staff - you lifted them up when they needed it the most, and we are so grateful!

We hope to keep the tradition going next summer, so if you are interested in participating in the future, make sure to update your contact information in your camp alumna account so we can get in touch with you. You as alumnae are a force, and you continue to be an integral part of our community, even from afar!