Eighty years of Hume staff
You were in a photo like this once.
If you ever served on staff at Hume, for one summer or for thirty years, you belong to this family. It has been waiting for you. This is the year to come home.
Before you were alumni
You were part of the ripple.
Hume’s logo is a stone dropped into still water. One point of impact, sending ripples outward long after the stone breaks the surface. Whether you served for a week, a summer, or a career, you became part of someone else’s ripple.
Almost none of that happened from a stage. It happened in the dish room at eleven at night. In the lifeguard chair, watching the same stretch of water for hours. On the ropes course, with someone’s full weight on the other end of your rope. In the kitchen at five in the morning, at the Snack Shop counter, or in a truck full of tools headed to fix a toilet that had stopped working. It happened in your loving response when a camper finally asked the hard question during cabin devotions. A camper watched how you served in a job no one was applauding, and that may be the part they carried home. That is the heart of Hume: the gospel isn’t only preached here; it’s lived out through play, work, service, and community. For however long you served, your life became part of that story.
Eighty years in, more than 1.5 million people have heard the gospel at Hume. Those ripples are still moving outward. Some began with you, and you may never know how far they reached.
more than 1.5 million people have heard the gospel at Hume since 1946cited in 2020
You were never alumni of a summer job. You are part of the reason this place still works the way it is supposed to. And you are still welcome here.
You will know these
If these mean something to you, this page was made for you.
None of this is explained anywhere else on hume.org. Nobody needed it explained. You were there.
The Final Countdown
A circle, a foot of rope between you and the next person, three gray trash cans, and the deafening sound of the whole camp cheering around you. Let go or touch a can, and you were out. Wherever you were on the hill, the opening notes of this song told you only four people were left in the fight for victory. Somewhere, somebody you know still talks about the time they made it to the Kajabe Can Can championship round. It might be you.
Broom Hockey
Ice hockey with no skates and brooms instead of sticks. To the untrained observer, broom hockey might look like ridiculous fun. But anyone who has stepped onto the ice knows this is serious business, the stuff of Hume legend. Campers battled for the coveted Kurth Cup and championship t-shirts, while Monday nights belonged to staff playing for bragging rights and the sheer joy of the game. If you’ve ever passionately defended broom hockey as an actual sport, chances are you spent a winter at Hume.
The Stars at Inspiration Point
The stars at Inspiration Point, or “Inspo,” as a new generation of staff knows it. A night sky that somehow sparkled brighter than almost anywhere else. Maybe you headed out to Lookout Rock instead, probably piled into the back of a pickup if you were on staff in the ’90s or before, where the view stretched wider and the darkness felt deeper. Some nights, someone brought a guitar and led worship beneath the stars. Others included star talks that opened your eyes to the glory of God displayed across the heavens. Years later, surrounded by city lights, you may still find yourself looking up and longing for just one more glimpse of the Hume night sky.
Hoe Down
The beloved mid-summer staff tradition no one wanted to miss, packed with red, white, and blue and good ol’ fashioned farm-style fun. Departments joined forces to battle for the coveted Golden Hoe through cow pie tosses, relay races that somehow ended with faces covered in berry pie, outrageous costumes, and plenty of hillbilly spirit. In recent years, fierce rounds of staff Kajabe have crowned a champion, but for decades it all came down to the showdown of the legendary Mud Tug. And rumor has it, a greased pig chase came even before that. If you ever sacrificed an outfit to Hoe Down, you know some stains were worth it.
Victory Circle
The last night. Everyone stood up and shared what God had done that week, and it took as long as it took. You probably remember who stood up. You may have been one of them. The staff versions that bookended the summer included Communion, often with loaves of bread passed family-style down the rows, a quiet reminder that you had been part of something far bigger than yourself.
Hume ’n Beans
The coffee shop, before the name changed. If that one lands, you were here before about 2022. It was home to Open Mic nights, with surprisingly good acts, plenty of wonderfully cringe-worthy moments, and performances people talked about long after they ended. You may not remember exactly where you sat or every person you met there for coffee, but chances are you can still picture that logo.
Down the Hill
Down the hill. Or up the hill. Yes, we know Hume is on an actual mountain. No, we never called it anything but the hill. Not a hill. The hill. And you were probably on staff if a late-night, four-hour round-trip banzai run to Denny’s, Taco Bell, or In-N-Out somehow seemed perfectly reasonable. After all, it was just a quick trip down the hill.
Staff Memory Books
The must-have handed out on Staff Appreciation Night, packed with everyone’s contact information so you could actually keep in touch when summer ended, or finally call that amazing girl you never quite worked up the nerve to ask out. Everyone could add a quote or favorite memory, with bonus points for an inside joke only a handful of people understood. You flipped through it, circled names, laughed at the quotes, and might still have a collection tucked away somewhere. If this is flooding your mind with memories, there’s a good chance you were on staff before the iPhone was invented.
The Ark
Built in 1976, and already old by the time most of us met it. The loudest room at Hume: pickup basketball all summer, dodgeball every night of Football Camp, and a winter rink that made legends out of people for one week a year. Some of the quietest moments happened there too, in side conversations after everyone else had gone. Nearly every family with a history at Hume has a story that happened inside those walls. Yours is probably one of them.
Alumni stories
Eighty years of people who were here.
1990's–today
Andy & Liz Friesen
Four generations deep
Andy Friesen's grandfather co-founded Hume in 1946. Eighty years and four generations later, his family is still writing the same story: as staff, as volunteers, and now as the parents of the next generation of counselors.
Staff 1994–2002 · volunteers ever since
In their own words · HUME magazine, Summer 2026
1940's–1970's
Walt & Frances Warkentin
The guardians of Hume
Staff 1946–1978 · Hume's first Executive Director
2010's–2020's
Cooper Carroll
Faith that endures: from Hume summers to Starlink systems
Eleven summers · through 2024
All 9 alumni stories →Spanning 1946 to today, and still growing. Yours could be next.
Find your years
Somewhere on this line is the summer you showed up.
Eighty years of it, and your summer is in here somewhere. These are Hume’s own milestones, told the way Hume tells them.
1945Milestone 1 of 12Christian men in Dinuba begin prayer meetings. The Hume Lake property is purchased in January 1946.
1946Milestone 2 of 12Hume Lake Conference Grounds opens: 15 volunteer staff, 670 campers.
1951Milestone 3 of 12Long Meadow Camp opens; now Meadow Ranch, the middle school camp.
1964Milestone 4 of 12Wagon Train welcomes its first campers to a Wild West experience for elementary-age kids.
1983Milestone 5 of 12Ponderosa Chapel is built for high school worship.
1998Milestone 6 of 12Wildwood launches: immersive discipleship in the back forests.
2000Milestone 7 of 12Joshua Wilderness Institute welcomes its inaugural class of 23 students.
2001Milestone 8 of 12The first Hume International Camp, in Papua New Guinea.
2011Milestone 9 of 12Hume expands coast to coast: the acquisition of New England Keswick becomes Hume New England.
2020Milestone 10 of 12Hume SoCal opens.
2021Milestone 11 of 1275 years, and the completion of a $48.2M capital campaign.
2025Milestone 12 of 12Nearly 55,000 guests served across the Hume family of camps.
Wherever you served
Once Hume. Always Hume.
Some of you gave one summer. Some gave ten, or thirty, or are still giving. If you served here, you are alumni, and that means you never stopped being part of this story. You belong here. You are part of this family. And you are always welcome home.
Sierra Nevada, California
Where it started in 1946, and where most of these stories happened.
Green Valley Lake, California
Opened in 2020, in the mountains above San Bernardino.
Monterey, Massachusetts
The Berkshires, coast to coast since 2011.
Why it matters that you stay
For you
You don’t need a reason to come back, and you don’t need a role to belong. Many of the people who remember your summer are still part of Hume. The place where you learned lessons you are still using is still standing. Coming back isn’t just nostalgia. It’s returning to a place that helped shape you, to a family you’re still part of, and to somewhere that still feels like coming home.
For Hume
Eighty years did not happen because people showed up for one summer. It happened because they stayed. They sent their kids. They came back to serve a week. They told somebody. They kept praying for a place they had not seen in years. Every camper who arrives this summer is downstream of somebody who did not treat their last day as their last day.
Staying involved does not have to be big. A story you send us. A weekend you come back for. A name you pass along to someone who needs a summer here. It only has to be something.
The Snack Shop
What was your milkshake order?
No trip to Hume is complete without a Hume milkshake, thick enough that you gave up and ate it with a spoon. Every alum has an order they never once changed, and most of us can still name it without thinking.
Settle it once and for all when you register.
Register and tell ushume.org/socal/summer-camp/: “No trip to Hume is complete without a Hume Milkshake.”
Country Fair Weekend
Alumni VIP Day.
Sunday, September 6, 2026
Part of Country Fair Weekend and Hume’s official 80th birthday celebration. Reunion spaces organized by the era you served, so the people from your summers are easy to find. A disc golf tournament on a course built just for the day, a BBQ lunch at the Wagon Train Pavilion, the pool and the boats on the house, and alumni discounts at Hume Apparel, the Supply Co., the Snack Shop, PPP, and Hume Coffee Co.
It is free, and it is one of the biggest alumni gatherings Hume has ever planned. Come find your people.
Why register
What alumni get.
Lifetime Alumni Card
Mailed to you in a Hume Alumni Packet once you register, with everything you need to stay part of this family.
10% off
Hume Apparel, Hume Supply Co., and the Snack Shop, every time you come back.
First to know
Alumni VIP Day, Hume Tour dates, reunion news, and exciting new opportunities land in your inbox before anyone else’s.
Alumni Car Magnet
A way to take a little Hume with you wherever the road leads.
Camper Activity Pricing
Enjoy Hume’s best available pricing on activities during your visit, our way of helping you jump-start the memory-making.