By Eric Connolly

Spring sunshine, blooming flowers, shorts and sandals beckon as winter parkas and boots go into storage. Summer is approaching, and that means it’s almost time to open Legendary Lodge for another faith-filled season, welcoming children and teenagers to the diocesan camp on Salmon Lake.

The 2010 season will span 10 weeks and feature the theme “Start Here. Start Now. Be Real.” Some of the camp gatherings and activities will be in a new building with more than twice the usable floor space of the old one.

Leading the team at Legendary Lodge are Director Colleen Dunne, Assistant Director Katie Murray and Camp Chaplain Father Marc Lenneman. Fourteen young adults comprise the counseling staff.

Dunne, an Anaconda native and director of Campus Ministry Programs at Carroll College, is heading into her 11th summer at the lodge, where she’s been a counselor, assistant director and director.

Murray has been a Legendary Lodge counselor for two summers and is associate minister for Campus Ministry at Carroll, her alma mater. Father Lenneman, who is also the chaplain at Carroll, is returning for his fourth summer at the camp.

A desire to serve is a leading theme in autobiographical profiles written by the counselors, and their excitement is evident, as well.

Working at the camp is “one of the best ways to serve the young people of the Diocese of Helena,” wrote Carroll student John Butts, returning for a second season as a counselor after a semester in Salzburg, Austria.

“If you are a camper reading this, be very excited, because I, and of course all the rest of the staff, cannot wait to meet you, or see you again, so that we can share the light of Christ with each other,” said another Carroll student, Ned Scheidecker of Butte.

Others on the male counseling staff include Alex Pfannenstiel of Portland, Ore., a former Carroll football player who graduated from the college this month, and Carroll students Matt Sewell of Deer Lodge, Bradley Maddock of Denver, Jacob Harrison of Missoula and Jimmer Natwick, a Minnesotan. Harrison and Maddock will be lifeguards, as well as counselors.

“Every week at Legendary is filled with energy that cannot be contained on the peninsula,” said Natwick, a counselor previously. A peninsula is one of the camp’s defining geographic features.

Female counselors include Carroll students Sierra Olszewski of Kalispell , Stephanie Peryam of Missoula , Carly Toepfer of Billings and Katie Oberweiser of Drummond, plus Tiffany Paull, a Montana State University-Bozeman student from Helena.

The camp “has a very special place in my heart and was the highlight of every summer growing up,” wrote Oberweiser, a former Legendary Lodge camper and cook.

“I am so blessed to now have the opportunity to be there.” Toepfer told campers, “I am looking forward to walking with you in your faith…and of course throwing you in the lake.”

Returning for a second summer as counselors are Alyse Zimmer, who is from the state of Washington and attends Washington State University-Spokane, and Elise Kilmer, a Carroll College student from Butte. Besides working as counselors, Kilmer and Peryam will be lifeguards.

Laura Campbell, a Montana Tech student from Butte, returns to Legendary Lodge after counseling there last year, but this time she will be an administrative assistant. Campers will be fueled with fare prepared by head cook and Carroll student George Lund of South Bend, Ind., and assistant Danny Volesky, a Helena native who attends Creighton University in Nebraska.

In addition to the enthusiastic 2010 team, campers will be the first to experience the new Lincoln Lodge, where the Eagle’s Nest building used to stand. The mountain behind Legendary’s peninsula is the backdrop for the two-story Lincoln building, which will serve as the main gathering place for campers and will house administrative offices and the first-aid station. There are comfortable restrooms, and an updated sound system.

The building is named for Charlie Lincoln, a Marias River landowner whose bequest to the Diocese of Helena funded the construction project. Lincoln died in 2007.

Even with the building’s Lincoln name, the structure’s lower level, for use by campers, will be known as the Eagle’s Nest.

“I am incredibly excited to have the new building as a part of our camp,” said Dunne, the camp director. “It really gives more space to help the campers feel like Legendary Lodge is their home. Giving them the opportunity to gather together in one place is important.”

Camper spots are still available for Junior High, Leadership and 5th/6th grade Boys camps. To check on open camps, visit www.legendarylodge.com and click on the “Registration and Forms” tab.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 5, May 21, 2010.