MC bringing thousands to Clinton for summer camps
Special to The Clinton Courier
This summer, thousands of students from across the Southeast will descend upon Mississippi College to sharpen their athletic or musical prowess, draw closer to the Lord, and have plenty of fun.
The offerings include immersive, weeklong experiences like Fuge and Super Summer, as well as concentrated, one-day clinics like basketball or football camps.
Ken Gilliam, director of continuing education at MC, said attendance for the annual rites of the season is expected to reach pre-2020 levels, as campers are eager to return to many of the activities that had been restricted by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.
“We anticipate entertaining between 4,000 and 5,000 campers from the entire southern region of the U.S. this summer,” Gilliam said. “The camps assist in the fulfillment of the University’s mission of service to the community through a variety of learning opportunities, and also assist in the University’s vision of commitment to the cause of Christ. They also provide adults and church members from more than one hundred churches from ten states greater exposure to Mississippi College, and provide additional revenue and support for campus programs and services.”
The fun started in early June, when MC began hosting camps and events for soccer, basketball, football and cheerleaders.
On June 13, one of Mississippi College’s most highly attended programs began: Fuge, a combination of Mission Fuge and Centrifuge, sponsored by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in Nashville, Tennessee.
Gilliam said MC was the first college in the country to host the combined camp, which takes students out of their normal routines and places them into an environment focused on changing lives through a relationship with Jesus Christ. MFuge participants immediately jump into ministry programs with local communities and serve people in need.
“They go into selected places in the metro area and do mission work, such as painting, yard work, or anything needed,” Gilliam said. “They collaborate with other churches in the area to find the best places for their work, then they come back to the MC campus and attend worship with Centrifuge participants.”
The first Fuge session was from June 13-18, and two others are scheduled this month: June 20-25 and June 27-July 2.
A one-day Super Hoops Elite Camp is set for Wednesday, June 22, and a three-day Super Hoops Team Camp begins Thursday, June 23. The on-court action will spill into the following week with a Lady Choctaws Overnight Camp from Sunday to Wednesday, June 26-29.
MC will beckon budding instrumentalists to music camp, a six-day event that will begin on Sunday, June 26, and conclude with a recital for parents. The popular soccer camps will be repeated in July for both boys (July 6-9) and girls (July 29-30), but the penultimate event of MC’s summer camp season will be Super Summer, a five-day event scheduled to begin on Monday, July 11.
“Super Summer is typically our biggest camp,” Gilliam said. “We anticipate about 1,100, counting the youth pastors, church leaders, and other staff who participate in the event and help lead it.”
The SBC sponsors the event, which is designed for students who have a desire to grow spiritually. Super Summer challenges them to share their faith with others.
Gilliam said representatives from several departments on the Clinton campus, from housing and food services to the Physical Plant and security, have come together to ensure all campers have the best possible experience during their time at Mississippi College.
For more information about summer camps at MC, visit www.mc.edu/offices/ce/summer-camps.
