Introducing New Staff in Springdale and Bentonville

The new school year brought in an fresh round of new staff members, amongst them Harold Crow and Scott Jones. Both have spent several years serving at Camp War Eagle, and both are passionate about teaching and leading the young people of Northwest Arkansas!

Harold Crow

Describe yourself in 3 words: 

Nerd, hufflepuff, Christian

What attribute of yourself are you most excited to bring to the CWE365 staff:

Energy and my love for spreadsheets.

What are you looking forward to teaching/sharing with campers?

The Gospel, how to make good decisions, and how to throw a frisbee.

What are 5 things that would be part of your best day ever?

Hot Chocolate, Chickfila, Ultimate Frisbee, music, and 70 degrees partially cloudy weather.

What's your favorite thing about Ozone so far?

Getting to go through the Gospel of Mark with high school guys.

What is one of your favorite camp memories?

Early morning runs with top staff Justin Berndt 

Scott Jones

Describe yourself in 3 words: 

spontaneous, lanky, energetic

What attribute of yourself are you most excited to bring to the CWE365 staff:

My love for engaging students in conversations

What are you looking forward to teaching/sharing with campers?

Playing crazy games and being bold in public so that fun memories are made, discussing Godly relationships with students and with families, teaching truth at local schools through acting.

What are 5 things that would be part of your best day ever?

An incredible view of nature from high up, riding a roller coaster, watching the noon parade at Disney World, seeing a broadway show, sampling numerous pasta dishes.

What's your favorite thing about Ozone so far?

I love the MANY different ways I am able to be involved in NWA community.

What is one of your favorite camp memories?

When I was top staff over the oldest boys cabin, we choreographed and learned a whole dance to "Everything is Awesome" and it was AWESOME! 

New Staff Bring New Ideas to Fayetteville Ozone

This summer, Molly Schmeidler and Joe Collura were hired as new leadership for Fayetteville's Ozone clubs. Both long time Camp War Eagle employees, in a variety of roles, Molly and Joe have already done a fantastic job embracing the campers and families of Fayetteville! Learn more about both below.

Molly Schmeidler
Describe yourself in 3 words: 

Warm, Punctual Sometimes

What attribute of yourself are you most excited to bring to the CWE365 staff:

I love celebrating uncelebrated things (mostly historical holidays).

What are you looking forward to teaching/sharing with campers?

I’m excited to learn alongside them the great experience of knowing God.

What are 5 things that would be part of your best day ever?

1. Sunrise sitting with earl grey and close friends.

2. Custom buttons

3. Kansas Day (celebrating 154 years in January!)

4. Erin Wiltse’s laugh

5. Bonfire

What's your favorite thing about Ozone so far?

Its shown me how God is alive and actively making His kingdom come in NWA.

What is one of your favorite camp memories?

I always get goosebumps during a good fire-up, but I would practically sprout dimples every time the Chow Hall experienced the musical climax of techno “Let it Go” during Planet Pizza.

Joe Collura

Describe yourself in 3 words: 

3 Words- Adventurous, Willing, Wacky.

What attribute of yourself are you most excited to bring to the CWE365 staff:

I'm Just excited to bring a different perspective and really do my best to be diligent in serving my fellow staff and kids!  

What are you looking forward to teaching/sharing with campers?

One of the things I am most excited about is teaching and learning how to serve alongside these campers and  getting to share in those experiences! 

5 Things That Would be involved in my best day ever: 

1. An airplane with an unlimited amount of Gas

2. Every National Park in America

3. 4 Friends

4. 1 big city, probably New York or L.A.

5. Barbecue 

What's your favorite thing about Ozone so far?

I have loved getting to work in the office with everyone and also just getting to know all of the Fayetteville ozone kids and seeing how awesome they are!

What is one of your favorite camp memories?

It has to be the time I caught a snapping turtle in the catch pond of the water-slides; it was pretty big. It almost bit me because Scott Havens (long time staff member) told me to hold it on the sides. (P.S. Never grab a snapper on the sides) I threw it in the woods. What I didn't know at the time was that once they find a body of water they will keep returning to it... someone else ended up catching it again and now that turtle doesn't go back to the water-slides.

Family Dodgeball, February 2014

The winter months can be long and quiet for a summer camp. We tend to thrive on sunshine, lake water and heat waves.

To break free of the winter, CWE365 held its first ever Family Dodgeball Night on the last Friday in February. Invitations were designed, printed, and mailed to every camp family. Pizza was ordered, dodgeballs were counted, and five different-sized brackets were drawn up, because we could only guess at what the turn out for this event would be.

Our goal was two hundred.

By the end of Friday night, we had over four hundred campers and parents throwing dodgeballs for twelve different teams. We ate eighty boxes of pizza and drank every bottle of water purchased, plus those that had been shelved in dry storage in our offices. In two and a half hours, we held over twenty-five dodgeball games. And it was glorious.

Christian Campbell, a sixth-grader who had dragged his parents all the way from Bentonville, said “It was awesome! My dad even played in the last two games! And Caddo won – GO CADDO!”

Dodgeball is a Camp pastime and on Friday night several parents took to the floor between students and CWE365 volunteers. Anyone over the age of thirteen had to throw with two hands, which forced dads into creative over-the-head, chest-pass and side-spin tosses. Elementary students scrambled about, lobbing dodgeballs back in forth in a flurry of minutes before the game ended and their team had to wait on deck for the next round.

The stands above the multi-purpose courts at the Jones Center were filled with parents, watching the game, eating dinner, and waiting for the night’s raffle. Besides the twenty-plus small prizes given away, the Jones Center gave away a year-long family membership and Camp War Eagle gave away to different student scholarships.

The night called for a multitude of volunteers from a few different organizations to hand out pizza, advertise programs and, most importantly, rally dodgeball teams. By the end of the night, both these volunteers and the community they were serving were exhausted and quite pleased. There’s nothing quite like throwing a dodgeball with your mom.