On a whim, Cathy Houston-Wilson and her husband decided to bring their children to Camp Koinonia for a week of Family Camp 25 years ago. By the end of the week, they knew there was something special about Family Camp, especially when they saw how much their children had loved the experience.
“They cried on the way out. My husband said, ‘They never cried when we left Disney,’” Houston-Wilson recalled.
Family Camp was more than just a fun experience, however, according to Houston-Wilson, whose family soon became regular Family Camp participants. Family Camp provided a place for the members of her family to grow closer to each other and to God, remarked Houston-Wilson’s youngest daughter, Kiera Wilson, 22.
“I would credit my entire faith to camp,” said Wilson, who recently spent the summer as a missionary in Ohio and currently is studying at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.
Families share faith, fun at camp in the Finger Lakes
Founded in 1957, Camp Koinonia operated for several decades as a Protestant youth summer camp before it began hosting Catholic families for weeklong Family Camp sessions in the 1980s. In 1984, a group of Catholic families purchased the camp property, which is located in the Yates County town of Middlesex, and eventually created the not-for-profit Camp Koinonia Inc.
While the camp hosts retreats and events throughout the year, Family Camp is its main offering. Billed as an all-inclusive five-day retreat, families attend one of the four sessions offered during the summer. Each family arrives at camp on a Sunday afternoon and stays until the following Friday afternoon. Each family sleeps in one of the camp’s eight cabins and shares meals in the lodge with the other families.
Each morning after breakfast and morning prayer, family members go their separate ways for a few hours. Adults gather for discussions related to the week’s theme, while children head to smaller groups based on their ages to learn about the same theme and participate in related crafts and activities. The chosen theme is different each year, but each of the four weeks of camp shares a common theme, which in 2026 was “Be still and know that I am God,” said Houston-Wilson, president of the camp’s board of directors.
Families reunite at lunchtime, then they have four hours of free time to swim in the pool, hike to a nearby waterfall, or just relax together before joining other families for dinner in the lodge and Mass in the camp’s chapel. Father Joseph Marcoux and Father Timothy Niven each typically spend a week at camp and preside over the daily Masses during those weeks. When neither of those priests is spending the week at camp, other priests drive to camp to say Mass, noted John Culhane, whose family regularly attended camp for years.
Teen, young-adult counselors serve as role models for children
Each evening, campers spend time with their families, sharing their high and low points of the day and when they felt closest to God. After family sharing time, adults typically socialize by the camp store, while teen or young-adult counselors “cabin-sit” the younger children, Houston-Wilson said. These teen and young-adult volunteers are part of what makes Family Camp so special, she added.
“They are role models for the children. They are not embarrassed about sharing their faith,” she said.
“They’re great examples of kids who love their faith and aren’t afraid to show it,” added Culhane, who served on the camp’s board of directors for 16 years.
When Wilson was a child, she loved getting to know the teen girls who were assigned to help out with her family, she recalled. She felt comfortable asking them questions about their faith and was inspired by their example, she said.
“I just wanted to be like the older kids who made such a big impact on me. I wanted to be able to cultivate that same experience for the younger kids who were coming with their families,” said Wilson, who served as a counselor for several years and also spent some time as program director. “I think it really formed me into understanding what servant leadership is, and what it means to pour out for others.”
Camp’s remote location helps campers feel closer to God
The geography of the camp lends itself to meaningful, personal interactions because it’s nestled in a valley without cell service, Wilson noted. There’s something freeing about being cut off from the constant distractions that cellphones bring, she said.
“They say the Lord speaks in a small whisper. I think the reason my summers were so amazing is I was actually able to hear him,” Wilson remarked.
Camp Koinonia is a special place, Culhane agreed.
“I’m Irish, so we have the belief that there are thin spaces where you feel closer to God, and I believe this is one of them,” he said.
Tags: Yates County News
