Picture this: you’re sitting by a wide, peaceful expanse of water on a summer day. Your phone is nowhere to be found, the sound of updates and incoming messages replaced by bird calls and the chatter of close-knit community members recapping one activity on the way to the next. 

Perhaps you pictured our campus, but if you’re one of the generations of Saints who has spent time at Camp Arrowhead, then the Episcopal summer camp on Rehoboth Bay may be on your mind. This year, there were plenty of familiar St. Andrean faces at camp, from alumni and current students working as counselors, to our Associate Chaplain Thomas Becker in his inaugural summer as Camp Arrowhead’s chaplain.

Becker is the latest, but not the first, Saint to see all St. Andrew’s and Camp Arrowhead share: camp is phone-free and forms “families” by cabin that lead to lifelong friendships. Both environments emphasize service and leadership, are built on foundations of faith, and foster interdependence and a growth mindset.

“The people who are plugged into [these] places are people who desire high-quality, community interactions with fellow humans,” he says. “One of the big things they say at St. Andrew’s, and I’m still leaning into it, is this whole idea of ‘challenge by choice,’ [and] I think that’s very true of camp, too. If you’re ready to do the rock wall … if you’re ready to ask some hard questions during Christian [Education] … it’s that innate sense of curiosity coupled with a desire to apply that curiosity meaningfully [that both places share].”

One challenge Becker and his fellow staffers have chosen for the summer? Successfully cultivating genuine care, building long-lasting bonds, and making lifelong memories with campers who will spend just a week or two at Camp Arrowhead. 

Although there’s a wider age range at Camp Arrowhead than at St. Andrew’s—campers are anywhere from 6-years-old to teens, and counselors in their teens and early 20s—Becker sees that as less than a challenge and more like a new context for his ongoing work. Becker may teach more scripture through arts and crafts in the former environment than the latter, but ultimately the goal is the same: helping young people of all faiths become their best selves.

“When I think about what it means to be a priest [who works in these environments], I feel like I’m engaging that in a way that I’ve always known is really important to me,” Becker says. “It gives me tools for a toolkit that is always growing.”

Just as life at a 100 percent boarding school allows Becker to see students not just in Chapel or in the classroom, but also in community spaces, or pursuing their artistic and athletic passions, sleepaway camp provides a more whole-picture approach to someone new—at least for an observer who pays attention.

“That multidimensionality is really special,” he says. “And I think I’m going to be able to apply that [this upcoming academic year at St. Andrew’s] in a way that allows me to clue in—even as I am not going to be coaching, even as I’m not going to be in the dorm—and still look for those things intently.”

That multidimensionality exists in the overlap between our school community and Camp Arrowhead, as well—many of the seasoned camp staffers who helped Becker settle into his new environment included alumni and current Saints. Becker was both grateful for their guidance and excited to see people he had previously only known as students in a new way: as his colleagues.

“[I] get to see how they are applying the passions and the skills that they’re honing at St. Andrew’s in the real world,” he says. “I could not be more proud to be known to them, and to have them known to me, and to have us both associated with the same place. There’s no one from St. Andrew’s newer at Camp Arrowhead than [me], and that’s also been a gift, to be able to learn from them.”

Camp counselor Margaret Gilheany ’25 paid forward to “Rev. B” the gift she’d gotten from her older sister, Hannah Gilheany ’24: a welcome into the Camp Arrowhead staff community, from someone who had gone before.

“Rev. B is so good at keeping kids engaged and interested in Christian education, and I’ve loved seeing him shine in this way,” Margaret says. “Seeing him in this new role as camp chaplain is so cool. He caught on to camp and made a positive impact immediately, I think especially due to the fact that [Camp] Arrowhead and St. Andrew’s have so many aspects in common.”

Chief among the commonalities is scheduling. Balancing schoolwork, campus leadership, athletics, and other activities at St. Andrew’s has taught Margaret skills that have kept her organized, productive, and calm under pressure throughout the activity-packed summer of a camp counselor.

Margaret is able to help facilitate campers’ bonds and safe summer fun in part because of lessons from St. Andrew’s, but just like Becker, she is fine-tuning skills by the Rehoboth Bay and bringing them back to Noxontown Pond this fall. Taking responsibility for the wellbeing of others as well as for oneself applies as much to the St. Andrew’s Discipline Committee, for which she serves as a member, as it does to leading a cabin, among other transferable skills. 

“Another skill I have translated is the patience and joy of interacting with kids. I get to spend my entire summer having fun and hanging out with children, and at school I try to find outlets for that as well like Adaptive Dance, mentoring, and now Sunday School,” she says. “Working as a counselor has helped me become more confident in being a leader.”

Margaret’s first summer at Camp Arrowhead also kindled her confidence in her faith, something she carries with her across the shift from campus to camp and back again each year.

“There are many different reasons I think I feel connected to God at camp: being constantly surrounded by nature, having responsibility for many kids, and our activities of gratefulness all contribute to a faith-filled environment,” she says. “I always loved being a part of these two Espiscopalian-rooted communities, because the values they stress have helped me become the best version of myself and have led me to make the best friends.”