Cal Graber came to Camp Friedenswald as a camper in 1951 and has remained connected throughout his lifetime. In the early 2000s he spent considerable time volunteering, helping to build the new girls/north cabins. He is among the “Builders” of Camp Friedenswald. 

As I begin to remember my first days at Camp Friedenswald I’ll always remember the trees. Growing up in Iowa and driving through Illinois and then coming down that narrow winding road into the entrance of Camp and seeing all those beautiful trees was truly remarkable for a young kid. I had never had the experience of living amongst the wild outdoors before.

What an experience living in a tent and helping to build the first cabin! It was a new experience for me to live in a cabin and to make new friends. Following the first year my mother came with me to help cook and she came many years after that with Bessie Slaughter. It was during those formative years that camp and its leaders helped me better understand God’s blessings to the world and to me. I don’t remember many games we played but I do remember Mosquito Hollow and the campfires where God became closer to me.

Following years away in College and Pax Service I was able to spend a summer helping to lay the bricks on the Chapel and to continue to make many new friends and to appreciate a closer relationship to God’s creation and his goodness to me. In order to keep costs low I remember going to gardens and orchards and picking fruits and vegetables for the food in the kitchen.

After having been out of the area for 40 years, I returned to spend the next 10 years volunteering at Camp, sometimes several times a week. Those years not only provided me with something meaningful to do during my retirement years, but once again Camp was a place of  connecting with friends new and old. What fun Virgil Claassen and I had building new cabins! We used lumber from camp trees to trim each of the north cabins. We also worked on building the viewing deck overlooking the fen. It was during those few years that I understood the real value of church camping and what it means to the development of young people and the future not only of our churches but of people getting along better in our world.

The sustainability of the camp by current leaders, and envisioned by early leaders, should not be taken lightly. What a blessing God has given to our church and communities for young people and old people to learn about God’s goodness to us. What I most cherished is walking in the deep woods and picking raspberries with loved ones.

I would hope and pray that Camp Friedenswald continues to minister, speak out, and work for peace and justice for all of God’s children and creation during the next 75 years as it has for the previous 75 years.