Spring of 2005, a St Johns Episcopal church coffee hour and a friend, John Mattox, made a simple suggestion, “you have a flexible schedule, you should come volunteer at Camp Bob this summer” It is said that God works in mysterious ways! From a simple passing suggestion multiple generations of a family are changed forever!
From the cabin devotion in Cabin Three that first night with Luke Neal in 2005, I felt I had found a place where we could make a difference and that lives could be changed. Little did I know that it was my life and my daughter Amy’s life that would also be changed.
After my second year at Camp, Luke graduated from NC A&T and began teaching at Aycock Middle School in Greensboro. As Luke had touched my life, he began to touch the lives of his students and he formed a young scholars program called iYes that our church St. Johns sponsored. He wanted to expose them to things and places they had never seen. We decided to go tour the Biltmore Estate and my then 8 year old daughter Amy and a friend tagged along with the iYes group to the Biltmore, thereby giving Amy her first taste of the magic of Camp Bob extended.
Years of volunteering for me added up quickly and these early years wove a vignette of amazing memories of campers that are now mothers and fathers and adults out making their place in the world. John Mattox, the friend whom God used to plant that small mustard seed of an idea, came to me in 2013 and let me know he was moving churches and could no longer run camp organization and fundraising and that he knew I was the right guy to take over. I told him he was crazy and had no time to do that. All week it gnawed on me until one day I sat in the empty church at St Johns, felt the sunshine through our stained glass windows and in a moment of clarity knew I should take the challenge. Man did I make mistakes but we muscled through the first few years. At that pre-COVID time all we had to do was safely deliver 80-100 kids to Camp safely, raise the funds for the week, coordinate a handful of volunteers and then turn the children over to a Kanuga employed, managed and coordinated set of counselors, food staff, etc. and “get out of the way” In retrospect, it was the easy days!
During the first two pandemic years, Camp Bob, like the rest of America, was shut down and Camp was just on hiatus, or so I thought. When the pandemic passed, I got a phone call saying that Kanuga was opening Camp back up and Camp Bob was on! Happy days, but then the punchline that Kanuga was evolving its approach to Camp Bob and while we could use the facilities and they would provide lifeguards and climbing instructors, we would have to hire, train and certify all staff and manage all activities at camp! Again I said that is crazy and no way did I have time to do that or any experience. I thought Camp had died on my watch! Again however, God worked in mysterious ways!
That little 8 year old daughter who had run around the grounds of the Biltmore with Lukes original iYes campers was now 23 and an experienced Montessori operations leader. She was still carrying that touch of Luke Neal inside of her along with years of hearing of the magic of Camp Bob. When she noticed my disappointment, she told me, “Dad, Dom and I can run camp!” Dom her boyfriend of just a year agreed and from there the baton was passed.
That moment has led to 4 summers of miracles in the mountains that have changed so many lives. Amy and Dom have brought their brothers, step-brothers, childhood friends and mothers and fathers into the magic of Camp Bob. They have taken Camp to new levels of excellence, they have found a calling, filled their parents with immense pride in their passion and excellence and have changed the lives of hundreds of people.
Camp Bob nurtures connections. Camp has a wonderfully subtle way of grabbing a person and like the vines of the forest, slowly and subtly enveloping ones heart and mind and gently pulls you into itself. It pulls you into a place of Faith, Hope, Love and Adventure where the campers are given these gifts but also where the counselors, staff and volunteers are given that and more. We have always shared with friends that volunteering at Camp is like the classic parenting advice we have all received, that it is hundred times more exhausting than you can imagine, BUT it’s a million times more rewarding. I know that when I “come down from the mountain” I am always struck with a deep sense of gratitude.
Yes, Camp Bob creates Miracles in the Mountains and changes lives! I will forever be grateful to God’s working in mysterious ways at Camp Bob to change mine!!!!
With extreme gratitude to John Mattox who God worked to start the ball rolling; to all the Camp Bob Prior Directors who paved the way; to Jimmy Hayden and the Kanuga Staff who continue to believe in the magic of Camp Bob; to St. Johns Episcopal Church for maintaining a 25 year tradition of giving back to the kids of Charlotte; to Luke Neal, God rest his soul, for changing mine; to Whitney and my friends who have so very generously rallied to make the magic happen; and most deeply to my amazing daughter Amy and her loving steadfast partner Dom Medico for bringing tears of joy to my eyes every time I see their love at camp!
-Ken Loeber, 2026