April 11, 2009
Rebuilt Pendola Center is ready to welcome summer campers
By Denise MacLachlan
Herald staff
Workers prepare to lay the foundation for the new basketball court at Pendola Center. Photo courtesy of Pendola Center
Rising from the ashes of a chimney fire that closed operations for four years, the Diocese of Sacramento’s Pendola Center in the Sierra foothills opens its refurbished and flourishing campus to families this spring.
Bishop Jaime Soto will bless the buildings and rededicate the camp at a special Mass at Pendola Center at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 17, according to Lori Rosene, director of Pendola Center.
The center, located near Camptonville in northeastern Yuba County, will host an open house from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. the same day, providing tour guides who will take visitors through the renovated kitchen and dining room and introduce them to the new activity areas in the building formerly known as “the barn.” The event will also be a celebration of 50 years of camping in the diocese on the site of Pendola Center.
Before the fire broke out in the unoccupied building in 2005, the barn had been used as a storage and maintenance area, Rosene explained in an interview. Now the redesigned activities building offers a large downstairs common room with a pool table as well as air hockey and foosball tables, and a smaller break-out room to one side. Three more break-out rooms are available on the second floor.
“We’ve been out of commission for four years, so a whole new group of campers may not know about us, or even know that the Sacramento Diocese has a camp,” Rosene said. “We want to get the word out that all of us have a youth camp, two hours from Sacramento, along Highway 49 at 3,500 feet.”
Pendola Center “provides a splendid opportunity for children and teenagers to experience the beauty of nature, to be far from the crowded city, to see stars clearly at night, and to enjoy the outdoors,” said Father Michael Kiernan, director of social service ministry for the diocese, who was instrumental in the rebuilding of Pendola Center.
Located 90 miles from Sacramento in the Tahoe National Forest, the land for the Pendola Center was donated to the diocese in 1959 by the Pendola family to be a summer camp for children. Over the years the programs expanded to become a year-round retreat center for youth groups. Camp Pendola is the name of the center’s summer camp youth ministry program.
Rosene noted that Camp Pendola doesn’t have an organized faith formation program, but that campers start each week with Mass and begin and end each day with prayer. “Beyond that, what we do at Camp Pendola is instill a sense of awe in what God has created and given us,” she said.
Campers learn to be good stewards of the environment, in accordance with Catholic social teaching, Rosene said. They recycle, use resources wisely and learn about the animals and plants in the land surrounding them.
They also learn the traditional camp activities: hiking, canoeing, “fun-yaking” (in a kind of open kayak), archery, and creating a range of arts and crafts.
Campers learn to care for one another as well. “We have meals together, and we work on table manners and social skills, too,” Rosene said. “Many families aren’t together for the evening meal any more, so it helps the kids to show them how to make conversation at the table. It also helps the kids learn to create community.”
Camp Pendola offers programs to boys and girls ranging from first graders to high school seniors, but other skills-building opportunities are available to high school graduates who work as camp counselors. Camp staff members range in age from 18 to late 20s and undergo two weeks of training and certification, Rosene said. The employment term runs from June 14 to Aug. 5.
“We get a lot of college students,” she explained, “because being a camp counselor is invaluable leadership experience.”
Since the Pendola Center is not subsidized by the Sacramento Diocese, the camp is supported by user fees, donations and volunteers, Rosene noted.
Volunteers will be more than welcome to come help set up the camp for the open house, she said. Rosene has organized two weekend work parties at Pendola Center to tidy up the details.
“We need people who can repair screens, rake, paint, cook, and do general maintenance,” she said.
“It’s a no-cost sleepover, and the camp feeds the workers, although we need people to help out in the kitchen to feed the workers,” she said. “We’re looking for people 18 and over and families. We feed them and in the evenings we have a campfire. It’s good fellowship, enjoyable company, and beautiful surroundings, at no financial cost.”
Work weekends are April 25-26 and May 2-3. Weeklong summer camp programs begin June 21; the last program ends on August 1, except for a special “Family Camp” program scheduled for Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4-7.
To volunteer or to get information about summer camp programs, call Lori Rosene at (916) 733-0127 or visit the Pendola Center’s Web site at www.pendola.org.
Golf event May 11 supports Pendola Center
Pendola Center’s 51st annual fundraising golf tournament will be held at at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento on May 11.
The golf tournament is the only source of funding for scholarships to Camp Pendola. The 2008 tournament raised funds to send 33 children to camp whose families could not have afforded all of the associated costs.
Last year, Camp Pendola’s summer programs were held at an alternative site, rented for the purpose. This year, the camp programs return to Pendola Center. To participate or support the golf tournament, call Lori Rosene at (916) 733-0127.
