Damascus began as a Catholic Summer Youth Camp for children in the Diocese of Columbus, but over the past 25 years it has grown into something much more.

“We often say that we are a Catholic missionary movement that’s seeking to bring as many people as possible to an encounter with Jesus Christ,” said Dan DeMatte, co-founder and Executive Director of Missions and Advancement for Damascus. “We offer camps, retreats, and conferences throughout the year, focusing on middle school and high school students, but we do a lot for young adults and adults as well.”

DeMatte noted that Damascus also hosts women’s retreats, men’s retreats, and young adult conferences throughout the year.

“There’s a little bit for everyone,” he said, “however, our main focus is the summer camp apostolate.”

After a humble beginning—only 63 students attended the first Catholic Youth Summer Camp in 2001— Damascus reports that roughly 6,000 campers will attend this summer, with another 2,000 youth on a waitlist.

Originally a travelling camp, Damascus was founded by DeMatte and fellow Executive Director Aaron Richards. It had no permanent home, renting campsites around Ohio. By 2015 a more permanent home was clearly required, and they found it at the 471-acre campus in central Ohio.

Damascus now operates two campuses; the original in Knox County near Columbus, and another in Brighton, Michigan, just north of Ann Arbor. A third campus will open in Maryland in summer 2026, and its growth shows no signs of slowing down.

“Our young people have a profound encounter with Jesus Christ, and as a result, they go home and they tell their parents about it, and they tell their friends about it,” DeMatte said. “It’s such a vibrant, transformative experience for kids that parents tell other parents and kids tell other kids. … We can’t keep up with the demand. We’ve never been able to.”

The camp experience includes several traditional summer camp activities. There is time spent on the lake, rock climbing, zip lines, paintball, high ropes, and more. But the adventure isn’t just physical. The spiritual aspect is what sets it apart.

“We juxtapose [high-adventure activities] with a high-adventure of faith,” DeMatte said. “A high-adventure faith experience is that our Catholic faith isn’t meant to be dull and boring, but it’s a great adventure to be lived. We introduce young people to that adventure through our missionaries. Our missionaries are doing the activities with the kids throughout the day, but then they’re also the ones leading the faith conversations and the faith formation.”

“The person who’s playing paintball with you is then also your counselor who’s sharing the Gospel with you,” he added. “It’s that connection of real life with the faith life that helps a young person. The light bulbs go off and the faith is no longer relegated to a textbook or just to a liturgy, but it’s incorporated into their experience with others.”

There are about 350 missionaries for the summer and 175 full-time missionaries, who are present all year round. The missionaries guide the campers, along with a few priest chaplains, religious sisters and brothers, and seminarians who help deepen the spiritual experience of the week.

Each day starts with Prayer Lab, which teaches the campers how to have a daily prayer life through Lectio Divina and reading Scripture. There is daily Mass in the afternoon, preceded by catechesis on the parts of the Mass.

At the evening programs, students experience Eucharistic Adoration, additional catechesis, worship, and a deeper dive into the Catholic faith.

“It’s a combination of all these different programming aspects that really trigger a faith experience,” DeMatte said. “We exist to be that place of a life-changing encounter with Christ, like St. Paul who had his conversion on the road to Damascus.

“We say we want to form kids with deployment in mind, so everything we do is meant to lead back to living the adventure of their faith at their parishes, schools, families, and communities. On Thursday night, we pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, so that the Holy Spirit can be present in their life as they go forth.”

DeMatte said that Damascus is meant to be a mountaintop experience that will hopefully give the campers the tools they need to live out their faith in their everyday lives, not just when they’re on the mountaintop.

Like the road to Damascus itself, the camp offers not just a destination, but a turning point—where faith becomes personal, and mission becomes possible.

This article appeared in the June 2025 edition of The Catholic Telegraph Magazine. For your complimentary subscription, click here.