Primary Children Learn, Find Connection in Service at Day Camps

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By Mary Richards, Church News

During a three-day stake Primary day camp this month in Lake Stevens, Washington, the children took part in a service project that was especially poignant for Andrea Wright, the Marysville Washington Stake Primary president.

Wright’s mother was on hospice for the last month of her life, and local volunteers had donated butterfly-shaped pillows to keep her comfortable while she was confined to her bed. After she died, the family wanted to use her impressive fabric collection to make pillows for other hospice patients.

And so the Relief Society sisters and Primary children in the stake joined in a service project and made 160 pillows.

“Before the service project, we read Alma 17:11, where the Lord teaches that if we make a faithful effort to serve, He will make us instruments in His hands,” Wright said.

Then, they had an object lesson showing a variety of instruments that they could use to serve others such as a shovel, pencil, sewing needle and serving spoon. The kids brainstormed ways that they can be an instrument in God’s hands in everyday life using different tools. Wright also showed the children a picture of her mother and why the project was particularly important to her.

“When the kids saw all of the 160 pillows piled together at the end of the morning, they were in awe of what just a few hands working together can do,” Wright said. “They loved working united as a team to accomplish our goal.”

Sophia Mackintosh, 9, who participated in the stake day camp, said the children enjoyed making the pillows and felt that they would comfort those in need.

“When we were making the pillows, I felt happy,” she said. “I knew people would feel loved using these pillows.”

Wright said the Spirit is abundant when people unite as a group in the service of others. Because of the service project, the children, youth leaders and Primary teachers at the day camp felt a common sense of belonging and identity as children of Heavenly Father.

The Power of Involving Youth Leaders in Primary Activities

Salena Hamberlin, the Corpus Christi Texas Stake Primary president, said her presidency has been prayerfully pondering how to better lift, strengthen and prepare their Primary children.

“Since the change to ‘Come Follow Me,’ our Primary children have been better participators and deeper thinkers,” Hamberlin said. “They are eager for more, eager for deeper songs, eager for more testimony building experiences.”

She saw how the youth in the stake came back from For the Strength of Youth conferences “glowing” and pondered how the Primary children could have a similar testimony-strengthening experience.

After much brainstorming with the presidency, leaders decided to turn their stake senior Primary day camp activity into a junior FSY — with the youth as their group counselors.

“This would give the children deeper spiritual experiences and give them the opportunity to connect with the youth so that the children already felt welcome when they graduate to the youth program,” Hamberlin said.

The stake held its first junior FSY in January, selecting 12 youth who had been to FSY to be the counselors. But when the word got out, more youth asked to participate. So they doubled the amount of youth counselors and were grateful they did when twice the amount of children showed up than they had expected.

“After the conference, parents sent feedback saying their child was positively glowing and talked about it for weeks,” Hamberlin said. “I wish all children everywhere could have such an opportunity.”

Youth ages 13-19 were invited to be leaders as well for the Marysville Washington Stake Primary day camp this July. Each group of Primary children had youth mentors assigned to them, and Wright said they were the key to making the camp so much fun.

“Their endless enthusiasm for the gospel is contagious,” Wright said. “There is something so amazing about having youth leaders in mentoring opportunities as they provide excellent examples. They strengthened the Primary children with their positivity, examples and loving kindness. Plus, they have boundless energy to do good.”

Joshua Carroll, 15, was a youth leader in Lake Stevens. He said he could feel the Spirit present in the classes as they talked about the gospel.

“I loved the reminders of the basics of the gospel, learning about getting baptized and that the Spirit is always with you,” he said. “It is comforting for me.”

He helped with a group of 10 and 11 year olds. “It was a great reminder that life isn’t totally stressful and there is time for everything. I loved having fun with the kids.”

Examples of Activities at Primary Day Camps

The Church’s Children and Youth program seeks to help children strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ and progress along the covenant path. This is done by learning and growing through four areas of personal development: spiritual, social, physical and intellectual.

Children may begin attending Primary activities in January of the year they turn 8. Children are organized by age groups, and boys and girls generally meet separately where the number of children and circumstances permit. Service and activity guidelines for children are found on primary.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

The Corpus Christi stake day camp, or junior FSY, had the theme of “Think Celestial.” Activities included a “hungry hippos” game, where children used baskets to capture loose balls and learned how everyone is essential to God’s plan and to gather them in. Archery helped the children see how to stay on target and focus on the bullseye of the gospel. A faith walk activity taught the children about listening to the Spirit.

“At the end of each activity, the youth counselors held a mini-devotional, helped identify spiritual feelings and allowed the children to share their feelings,” Hamberlin said, adding, “It was a beautiful way for them to see, feel, know and bear record of their Savior.”

Wright said the theme of the Marysville stake activity day camp was inspired by the series in the “Friend” magazine called “Friends in the Book of Mormon.” Each activity, art project and class was centered on people such as Moroni, Lehi, Abish, Enos and Jesus Christ.

“Our children love the stories of the Book of Mormon,” Wright said. “We had fun activities with archery, BB guns, the ‘tree of life’ [from the Book of Mormon] and many others. Our teachers got creative class ideas from the Primary Instagram page, the ‘Friend’ and other Church resources in the Gospel Library app.”

After the third and final day, stake member Kate Deardeuff, 8, was asked if she liked the day camp and she replied, “Liked it? I loved it!”

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