As Camp Howard’s 73rd camping season comes to an end, we say goodbye with wonderful memories of a fantastic summer. The wildfire smoke that settled in during the past week presented an unexpected challenge, requiring our staff to transform activities into exciting indoor events for the campers. Throughout each day, we checked in with the children to make sure they were having a good time. The smiles on their faces were clear evidence that our staff was doing an outstanding job

Difficult situations reveal what people are made of. Most of our staff dug deep, adapted to the circumstances, and made the best of a challenging situation. A few staff members were frightened by the smoke and felt it necessary to leave their positions early. Working with youth is rewarding because it gives us the opportunity to inspire them and help them discover the grit needed to stretch beyond their comfort zones. Most of our staff embraced the challenge and remained committed through the end of their service.

In addition, someone concerned about the wildfire smoke contacted OSHA to report that employees had not been offered N95 masks. When an OSHA representative arrived at Camp Howard, I was actually pleased to see her and grateful for the opportunity to review our procedures. If you have ever been through an OSHA investigation, you know that representatives are thorough and ask many questions.

We were able to provide extensive documentation of the steps we had taken, including distributing KN95 masks on Monday. Although the person who filed the complaint felt that KN95 masks were insufficient, the OSHA representative confirmed that they were appropriate. We had also begun gathering N95 masks so that staff and campers could receive fresh masks each day. She applauded our efforts and was duly impressed after reviewing our facilities, procedures, and written documentation. I was thrilled to know that we had followed the appropriate safety measures from beginning to end—and even more pleased to impress our OSHA visitor. These complaint cases eventually become public information online.

The one area where we identified room for improvement was mask-use training. Next year, we will add instruction on how to wear masks properly to our staff training.

Before the OSHA representative’s visit, we had already decided to close camp one day early. It was clear to the administrative team that both campers and staff had given everything they had, and it was time to bring the season to a close. We scheduled the Cougar Awards for Wednesday evening and arranged for parents to pick up their children from the bus a day early. Several parents also picked up their children directly from camp on Wednesday.

In spite of the wildfire haze and the OSHA visit, it was a fantastic camping season—one that we all consider to be among the very best on record. Thanks be to God.

Camp Howard honors session 5 first year Cougar Award winners:

The final session of Camp Howard’s 2026 camping season comes to an end this week with over 200 campers and another 60 staff taking part in the week of fun. Four busses pulled into the camp Sunday afternoon to deliver the campers from the Greater Portland area.

As we rolled into Monday, so did the smoke from the Spokane, WA fires as well as the Grasshopper fire near Warm Springs in Oregon. Smoke put a damper on the outdoor activities in the afternoon, and the program staff began putting activities together for indoors including 9 square in the air, limbo, corn hole, interactive dancing, and other movement games. Tonight’s camp activity will be BINGO in Mary’s Lodge with some awesome prizes.

While the change has been disappointing for campers and staff alike, everyone has shown patience, flexibility, and resilience as plans have shifted throughout the week. Our program team has worked hard to adapt, creating engaging indoor activities and making full use of Camp Howard’s new Youth Center and Dining Hall. These spaces have allowed campers to stay active, connected, and engaged while providing comfortable gathering places for the camp community.

Difficult circumstances often reveal the strength of a community, and that has certainly been true this week. Staff members have embraced their responsibilities, adjusted quickly to changing conditions, and remained focused on creating a meaningful camp experience for every camper. Their dedication has been inspiring. Couldn’t be prouder of them.

Even with the limitations, campers continue to build friendships, share experiences, and connect face-to-face in ways that are increasingly rare in a screen-centered world. While this week may look different from what anyone expected, campers are still making special memories and forming new friendships.

We will continue to come up with additional new activities and make the best of our situation. All activities take place inside except for going to the nurse, meals, and daily trip to the camp store. Camp Howard follows the protocols of Oregon Health Authority and OSHA.

Tuesday evening all camp activity was BINGO which was a huge hit. A giant stuffed moose was the prize for the lucky winner and there were several additional prizes but none as awesome as the moose! I am grateful to campers and staff alike for their willingness to adapt due to the smokey environment.

Enjoy the photos of the Sunday night campfire and Tuesday evening BINGO

BINGO PHOTOS

Double click on photos to enlarge and view.

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Being awarded the top camping award at Catholic youth camp is an honor and exciting experience. Youth are reminded that bringing our best selves to camp and engaging in good wholesome fun, being kind, including everyone, being helpful and respecting camp and others are important values to make the camp operate smoothly.  Witnessing Christ through our actions makes camp a lot of fun for everyone.

One youth from each cabin is awarded the coveted Cougar Award each week as determined by the cabin counselor and or the cabin members.

The attached photos were taken around the camp Thursday July 30, 2026 at Camp Howard. Double Click on photos to enlarge them. Please “Like” and ” Subscribe” to my blog thank you!

Camp Howard is a great place to go to experience the great outdoors and have fun doing activities that bring life such as zip line, big swing, corcls, arts and crafts, pedal carts, laser tag, paintball, bb guns, archery, survival camp, trap shooting, pool, 100′ slip and slide and many other things.

This week, survival camp was a specialty camp along with volleyball and basketball camp. All other general camp activities take place as well. There are options for everyone and it is exciting to see the campers engage in as many activities as possible during the week.

Enjoy a few photos from this week: