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Campion’s ski and snowboard club hit the slopes at Copper Mountain on their three-day trip this past weekend. They were thrilled to experience both fresh powder and sunshine on Sunday and warm Spring conditions on Monday.
The Leadville Seventh-day Adventist Church generously hosted the students in their basement and bunk room. After beating a snow storm by driving up Friday evening, the students put on the church service for the local members on Sabbath. The Students with a Testimony (SWAT) trip is an annual ski club tradition and the members enjoy fellowshiping with the students. Another tradition of the trip is sledding after church. “Sledding is always one of the most enjoyable parts of ski trip for me, and that’s mostly because you get to see the “science” skills of the students truly emerge as everyone puts their best efforts together to see exactly how far (and more importantly, how fast) the sledder can truly go,” explained Euan O’Keeffe, senior. This year, Jack Jordan brought a collapsible shovel and created jumps for the tubes. After sending people sailing off the first one, they built a second jump further down the hill. O’Keefe continued, “We truly sought to answer the question, ‘How many ramps is a reasonable number to go down?’ The answer was one. Of the three people who were able to get down to hit the second ramp, three crashed. Great memories!” On the ski days, the students grouped up according to ability, and they all challenged each other to improve their skills and try harder runs. Elin Sorensen, one of the expert skiers, shared, “On Monday, Jack, Zach, Addison and I set a goal to ski as many runs as possible in the morning. It was fun because we were just going really fast and we were able to touch many different runs on the mountain.” New to Ski Club this year, Joshua Profir, a freshman, commented, “The best part of ski club is getting to know people you’ve never really talked to before, then becoming friends with them, and then getting to ski with those friends.” Overall, the days in the beautiful Colorado mountains offered a chance for the club members to improve their skiing and snowboarding skills while enjoying each other’s company. Jill Harlow, Communication Director
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Working full days in heat and humidity, 29 Campion students and 16 staff transformed the facilities of the King’s Children’s Home in Belmopan, Belize over Campion’s Spring Break, March 9 to 16.
Managed by Pastor Paul Cassanova, King’s Children’s Home (KCH) is an independent Seventh-day Adventist establishment which houses children whose parents are unable to take care of them for a variety of reasons. The major project for the week was constructing, painting, and installing framed screens on over 80 windows on their dorm rooms. The crew tackled other large projects including repainting the church and common areas, rebuilding bleachers, installing a street light, digging a drainage trench, and multiple other improvement projects. Misha Newbold, senior at Campion, commented, “The hardest part about this trip was working in the hot Belize sun. There were several things that could have set us back but we found our way around them. I found that the work we did for KCH felt fulfilling because in the end we were serving people and showing them Christ through what we did.” One of the setbacks was the rented bus breaking down on the first day of the trip. The local mechanic said he would not be able to repair it, so Pastor Paul called a mechanic he knew who specialized in bus repair but lived in a city over three hours away. Miraculously, the mechanic happened to be traveling and was only three blocks away from where the bus had broken down. He was able to immediately come over and work on the bus and had it repaired by that evening. In addition, the painting crew faced some challenges with having to repaint due to color issues. Sherlin Vasquez-Hernandez recalled, “We were expecting some struggles because not everything goes as planned and it happened.” First, the crew spent a few hours painting frames before being told they were using the wrong color. Then, when they ran out of paint while painting the church, they discovered the new bucket they had begun using was not a match to the first coat. Vasquez-Hernandez continued, “It was a blessing to just see the others pushing through and not letting it get to us. We just kept painting and helping in what we could. It was ‘unBelizeable.’” Ultimately, they finished more painting projects than the director had planned for them with all the correct colors! In the end, the crew was very productive and able to accomplish much more than expected. “‘Belize’ it or not I also was blessed to go on the mission trip,” commented Jack Jordan, senior. “We were given a long list of tasks that we needed to complete during the week. Just as the sun dipped below the horizon on Friday we had finished them all. God truly blessed our work during this trip.” In addition to the work, the group took a day excursion to snorkel and explore the island of Caye Caulker. “The whole day was just a wonderful experience, start to finish,” Euan O’Keefe, senior, shared. “It began by feeding tarpon fish, and the things were as big as me and about as hungry too! We dangled sardines in front of them and they leapt so far out of the water to get to us it’s a wonder none of them ended up in the boat with us. I did it twice, the first time went perfectly fine, about as expected, but the second one must have overshot. He almost took my hand with him! Ended up biting my hand up to the wrist, but now I know what the inside of a tarpon’s mouth is like. Wet. Warm. Slimy. Generally unpleasant.” Sarah Rushold, senior, furthered, “We saw beautiful coral and swam with nurse sharks and stingrays. The water was ‘unBelizeably’ clear and blue. It was really awesome to see all the creatures that God created.” The last day of the trip was Sabbath, so the Campion students, organized by Pastor Josh Hestor, led out in a vespers and church service for the children. “It was really fun to put together the worship services and I was trying to help them remember what Pastor Josh had been preaching about all week,” said Natalie Bryant, freshman. “It was really a blessing to see their smiles and hear them singing and laughing during the service.” After church on Sabbath the group climbed pyramids at ancient Mayan ruins. The trip was organized by Chaplain Lindsey Santana with the help of Bill Hay who had been on mission trips to Belize 13 times. “It was super intimidating coming into this year as chaplain, knowing the school wanted me to plan and organize a mission trip,” shared Santana. “I had never planned an international trip for a group, and when it became clear that 46 individuals wanted to go to Belize I knew God was going to have to take the reins in order for the trip to become a reality. Prayers were answered when Bill Hay, who has travelled to King’s Children’s Home several times, committed to helping.” Santana furthered, “Our group of sponsors included individuals who knew their way with power tools but also loved interacting with teenagers. Miracles happened when each student became fully funded right before we left. Time and again I saw the hand of God blessing and guiding in the minutiae of planning this trip and his hand on the actual trip itself. I think the students are returning with full hearts and wonderful memories.” Jill Harlow, Communication Director Despite frigid temperatures and an even worse wind chill, the girls also came out strong, winning 7 to 0 against a team they lost to last season, Evergreen High School.
This year marks the first official season for Boy's volleyball at Campion. Spurred on by interest especially amongst our Brazilian and Indonesian students, the boys began practicing last year, and this year they were able to obtain coaches and have a real season. The first game was against a large public school: Mountain View High School in Loveland, with the Campion boys coming out on top 3-2.
The Campion Men’s club hosted their annual Ironman competition this past weekend which featured various intense events such as an obstacle course, running, jousting, a rope climb, a pushup contest, and a dunking contest.
Sergio Enriquez, junior, took home the trophy for first place for the second year in a row. He was followed closely by Josh Matabaro in second and Toby Quillin in third. Reflecting on his victory, Sergio shared how the Ironman event made him work hard for the win; “Watching my peers push themselves in each event made me want to push myself even more, knowing that if I didn’t, I would’ve been left behind.” This year, Damaris Lopez Morquecho was the only female competitor. She commented on the experience as a senior, “I’ve done Ironman all four years and since this was my last year it was really fun. My favorite part was the jousting competition.” The ironman competition is an annual tradition with a long history at Campion. Former Principal Don Reeder came out to be the MC for the event in keeping with tradition. The winners’ names are engraved on a large trophy kept in the boy’s residence hall. Alexandra Cordoba, Student News Editor Campion students strengthened their commitments to Jesus with the support of Pastor Taurus Montgomery’s powerful messages during Week of Worship.
Montgomery is a Seventh-day Adventist pastor who has recently focused on reaching teens for Christ as a motivational speaker. His delivery style was both engaging and Biblically based, reaching many students. Montgomery shared his personal testimony of how his life changed going from growing up in a violent culture to becoming a Christian. Olivia Arizola, commented, “My faith became much stronger after hearing how much he had changed and turned to God. Even after all he went through, he still kept pursuing Christ.” On Thursday and Friday evening, more than half the student body responded to Taurus’ call to commit or recommit their lives to Jesus. Arizola furthered, “I appreciate how the speaker was able to speak to everybody in the school, and seeing people stand up that I’ve never seen do that before was a great blessing.” Bruno Lopes was encouraged by the messages saying, “Before the Week of Worship I was having some confusion about my spiritual walk, and it was making me distressed. Over the week I could feel Jesus talking with me through Pastor Montgomery, especially on the first day when he spoke about being "Uncaptured by the Culture." The spiritually focused week ended with Vespers Deluxe. After Montgomery’s final message students gathered together in the tower to sing praise songs together, concluding the week on a high note. Jill Harlow, Communication Director |
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