Gerry Adam’s Last Summer at Camp Huron

Imagine having the privilege of walking alongside children as they grow from campers, to staff, to parents bringing their own little ones up the camp road. Imagine touching generation after generation with encouragement, teaching, and joy. For more than three decades, this has been the quiet, steady legacy of the Reverend Canon Gerry Adam.

Gerry first arrived at Camp Huron in 1991, stepping into an arts and crafts programmer before serving as chaplain, assistant director, and eventually director. In 1997, she became the first woman and the first layperson to lead the camp. “I’ve had the very unique gift of watching our children grow up before my eyes,” she shares.  “I have people who were staff in 1997 whose children are now staff.”

A few years into directing, Gerry discerned a call to the diaconate, a path shaped by the very place she served. “My direction to ordained ministry was really informed by the camp.

This interwoven calling as teacher, deacon, director, has guided her every summer since.  

This year marks Gerry’s final camp season after decades of summers spent in the green open at the end of a long gravel driveway. “One of our former staff used to say it’s the crunch of the gravel under the tires that just got her heart going.” Gerry smiles, likely envisioning that roadway. “It’s such an important metaphor for the journey we’re on. I often think, when I walk it or drive it, of everybody who’s done it before. And the people that are no longer with us, who had that vision to set apart a place for children to grow and learn and just have fun.

Camp Huron sits tucked between towering trees and a sweeping beach, a place where children ponder the wonder of being in creation, ask questions without fear, and fall asleep to the sounds of water. It’s a wondrous place with clear skies by day and dizzying stars by night, accompanied by the rhythmic calls of cicadas and the dancing of waves. The cabins are perched right on the edge of a steep incline down to the beach. This happy location makes it so that the waves lull the campers to sleep. To Gerry, “they ebb and flow like the rhythm of a heartbeat.” She thinks fondly of her time there.

Camp Huron was established in 1946 and at the time was known as Huron Church Camp. It has seen a myriad of children, families, and staff members over the years.

The buildings, some worn with age and years of use, hold their own charm, permeated with the fragrance of bug spray, sunscreen and eighty summers’ worth of woodsmoke from the campfire circle.

Generations have filled this place with joy and wonder, and Gerry has witnessed it all.

Of course, not every season was easy. For example, the pandemic arrived just as staff were hired and families registered. Most contracts had to be rescinded, fees refunded, and still people responded with remarkable generosity. “A lot of families donated their deposits and some others said, “keep the whole thing.” They were incredibly gracious.”

Growth involves both stumbling and soaring. Gerry has walked with young people discovering who they are, some navigating turbulent paths, others facing profound struggles. “Some young people have gotten through really challenging times with the encouragement of a cabin mate, a kind counsellor, a compassionate nurse, a listening chaplain, wrapped in the arms of the camp community. The stories of our young ones rest tenderly in Gerry’s memory.

She often returns to a moment from scripture in the gospel of Luke where a twelve-year-old Jesus stays behind in the temple and is found by his parents sitting with the teachers and asking them questions. “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor.”

Watching campers do the same, year after year, has been one of her greatest joys. “There’s just something about being the witness to all that growing and becoming what God dreams us to be,” she reflects. “Perhaps they have witnessed the same in me.”

And then with a light laugh, “I’m getting a little teary.”

Gerry insists that the story of Camp Huron is never the story of one person. Families entrust their children to the camp year after year. Staff pour themselves into creating safe, joy-filled summers. Supporters, volunteers, and Anglican Church ministries have stepped in whenever needed. Bishops and clergy have woven their presence into the camp’s rhythm. “It really isn’t one person,” Gerry says.

Her own journey from playground leader to educator in creative spaces, to literacy coordinator, library assistant, deacon, and director, formed Gerry into exactly the kind of leader Camp Huron needed: one who sees learning everywhere, especially under open skies.

There’s a line in the baptismal service that asks God to give the newly baptized “the gift of joy and wonder in all God’s works” (BAS p160). Gerry has spent more than thirty summers doing just that. Offering children a place where joy and wonder are unavoidable. A place where creation itself teaches and where every question is welcome.

As she steps into retirement this fall, Gerry leaves behind more than just a job. She leaves a living invitation to hear that crunch of gravel and remember why Camp Huron exists. An invitation to keep nurturing young people who are growing “in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favour.” An invitation to make space for joy and wonder in a world that desperately needs both.

Her legacy is woven into every cabin, every sunset, and every camper who ever found themselves a little braver, a little more curious, and a little more loved.

And now as we wish Gerry the warmest blessings in retirement, may we carry forward the ministry she helped shape. May we show up for the next generation with the same tenderness and delight. And may Camp Huron continue to be a place where children can “become who God dreams them to be.”

Happy Retirement to the Reverend Canon Gerry Adam!