Each Sunday at Dudley, an experienced member of our community shares a few personal thoughts about what the Dudley Chapel experience has come to mean to them. In July 2024, #14278 PJ Calello was on campus and shared his reflections with the community.

July 28, 2024

Good afternoon.

I had never gone to chapel before coming to Camp Dudley as a camper. I went to church with my parents for as long as I could remember, many more Sundays than not. Dudley Chapel was my first experience praying to my Maker outside of a structure created for me by the Roman Catholic Church. It was my first time beginning to take control of my own spiritual journey. Dudley is a place of sounds—cheers and cheering, music and mayhem, singing and celebration—but chapel was a still place, with birds and wind. And while it was not in a church (which I still attend more Sundays than not) with its pomp and pageantry, I have always felt closest to my God here.

As a Leader, I had the joy of connecting my campers to this special place. I wanted them to love it as I did. I was not much different then than I am now, a born salesman who has no issue talking your ear off. I learned you cannot sell chapel and you cannot teach it. You need to only bring your boys here, let go, be quiet and still, listen, and let it wash over you. My most poignant memory of this place at that time was seeing a 13-year-old James Mayo step onto this very platform and open his mouth to sing. And when he finished, the birds and the wind seemed to me to be applauding.

Now as a parent and jolly alum who is allowed by God’s grace to return to Dudley each summer, I see the Dudley Chapel as a place that reminds me of the meaning of gratitude. To be grateful my wife and children can be part of this journey, to be grateful to have an unplugged safe space to ask myself if I am living the Dudley mission as well as I can, and to look into the eyes of you all as you carry forward this blessing that is Camp Dudley, where our Maker is so obviously present.