The massive sandstone grotto at Camp Ondessonk in Ozark, located deep in southern Illinois, is like a cave and can be used as a shelter during storms (Submitted photo from recent Earth Day Mass).

In the pre-dawn hours of July 4, catastrophic flooding of the Guadalupe River in west-central Texas claimed the lives of 27 campers and counselors from Camp Mystic, a private Christian summer camp for girls.

“Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,” is shared on the Camp Mystic website. “We are praying for them constantly.”

Camp Mystic is nearly 1,000 miles by car from Camp Ondessonk, located in the Shawnee National Forest of southern Illinois, but the tragedy still hits close to home, said Dan King, executive director of Camp Ondessonk.

King said thoughts of the flash flooding in the Guadalupe Valley River Basin of Texas have been “rolling around in my mind” since the tragedy occurred.

King added that the Ondessonk campers have been sharing moments of silence and prayer for children at Camp Mystic.

With this recent tragedy in Texas, The Messenger asked King about the emergency planning at Camp Ondessonk, which has 400 children and roughly 100 staff and volunteers (young adults and adults) each week in June and July.

“Camp Ondessonk is a big, complicated, small city — all operating at once,” King said.

He said the major weather concerns at Ondessonk are heat and storm-related, especially regarding lightning.

The camp is located in the upper portion of a small watershed. There are two creeks that cut through the main area and many intermittent streams that don’t run year-round. Any cabins located in these areas are raised on platforms.

“What happened in Guadalupe River Valley, which is a major river with a massive watershed, is completely different situation from us,” King said. “But this situation in Texas has pushed the topic of emergency planning into the forefront of my mind once again.”

King said Camp Ondessonk has emergency action plans for “about every kind of scenario you can imagine.” They review these plans during 14 days of staff training before summer camp starts.

They have emergency shelters designated in all the places at the camp where people frequent, including the massive sandstone grotto located by Lake St. Issac.

Camp Ondessonk staff use several tools for emergency preparedness, such as the weatherbug app, which sends alerts to phones; weather radios tuned to the National Weather Service; handheld professional radios with the camp’s own frequency; and lightning detectors at the swimming and boating lakes that will buzz if lightning occurs within a certain range.

“The training exists, the manual exists,” he said. “But emergencies that may happen rely on us, as leaders in the community, to use our skills of observation and to pay attention to what is going on. Weather is local. We are constantly dialed into what is going on with our weather.”

Camp Ondessonk is accredited by the American Camp Association. Developed exclusively for the camp industry, this nationally recognized organization focuses on program quality, health and safety issues.

This accreditation means that Camp Ondessonk thoroughly reviews operational practices, seeks the wisdom of other summer camp professionals and continually makes improvements within its summer camp program to comply with more than 300 written standards.

Only one-fourth of summer camps in the United States have earned this mark of distinction.

“We are given this very sacred responsibility,” King said, “to care for other people’s children in an outdoor setting where there is going to be some level of discomfort, like from the heat and sleeping in open-air cabins. It might be a little bit buggy. There can be weather events. But their growth experience comes from this discomfort.

“And with that comes the reward of hearing the whippoorwills and frogs at nighttime, and perhaps, even a coyote way off in the distance. The reward of dealing with some heat means you get to see some magnificent places, to be in the God-created playground that Camp Ondessonk is. After the first 24 hours of camp, kids are more like we were when we were kids. They are in the moment.”

King believes parents who send their children to Camp Ondessonk know there will be some level of discomfort. It is a big responsibility, and they know the potential for weather or heat events, or their child might be homesick, but they send their children anyway.

“This feeds into the trust they grant us with their children. It’s a gift that we get from parents,” King said. “I think about that all the time. It’s truly something. We feel honored to serve these children.”

For more information about Camp Ondessonk, visit ondessonk.com.