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:

The dust rolled off the back of the tires as the busses hit the gravel road leading into Camp Howard Sunday afternoon and 175 campers disembarked for a week of pure fun. The luggage crew went to work delivering luggage to the various units where the campers would be housed and the youth leadership crew began the process of grouping the campers into cabin teams. A weekly ritual during summer camp, everyone has a job and it works like clockwork…most of the time.

Enjoy the photos from the arrival of the busses: