By Sharon Mager
Emily Reedy, director of Skycroft Conference Center in Middletown, Md., looks up from fastidiously
arranging the center’s famous extra-large cookies on a platter with her trademark smile. Reedy enjoys her job which entails overseeing every aspect of the 340-acre conference center, including staff, operations, camps, and retreats.
Emily Reedy is the director of Skycroft Conference Center
“Camp ministry is a lifestyle,” Reedy says. The whole staff, she emphasizes, is committed to “being there” for guests—whether it’s for the fellowship and exciting camp and retreat activities, setting up behind the scenes or meeting the needs that may arise at 2 am.
Relating her spiritual journey, Reedy says she grew up in a Christian home, attended a Christian school, and gave her life to Christ at an early age. At 15 she got her first job as a lifeguard at Skycroft and found that she loved being at the center in the summer, and having the opportunities to be a part of the summer camps.
“I was amazed that there were 300 kids here every week excited to worship God together. It was the first time I had been around young people that were genuinely pursuing Jesus and passionate about the Gospel. It lit a fire in me,” she exclaims.
“There were folks here — Skycroft staff and college camp staffers — who mentored me and modeled what it looks like to serve others with a joyful spirit.”
Reedy left to attend West Virginia Wesleyan College, where she double-majored in English and Public Relations. Returning to the camp in the summers, she began working for LifeWay, serving with CentriKid camps, which allowed her to travel to at least 15 camp locations throughout the Southeast, not knowing at the time that God was preparing her for her future role as camp director. She now draws often from those experiences, she says.
In 2015, when a position became available in the Skycroft reservation office, the past Skycroft Camp Director, Doug DuBois, called on Reedy. Though at the time she was working for the local school system in a communications position, she was happy to return and work fulltime at Skycroft. Reedy assumed the associate director role in 2016, and then took on the senior position in January, shortly after DuBois resigned.
It’s long, and often hard work, she admits, but she enjoys it all.