When Alpha became Cornerstone...
Alyssa LaRocque
As I reflect on it, the camp that we now refer to as Cornerstone has been going through an extended mid-life crisis.
Under its original Alpha name, it teamed up with Omega to be the dynamic duo of camp sessions at the end of the summer for young adult campers. Alpha was the weekday portion and Omega was the long weekend portion, and campers could attend one or both. Together, they served as a fantastic time of reunion and fun for people who had grown up attending or serving at camp. I actually got my start at Beacon as an under-aged “attendee” at Alpha; my parents volunteered as program staff in my first years of life and got to bring me along.
By the time I got around to being a legitimate Alpha camper, Omega was the decline in attendance and was eventually removed from the Beacon roster, making Alpha the lone young adult option. This induced a series of age range changes in the effort to strike a balance between creating an opportunity for long-time Beaconites to continue to attend and being relevant in what spiritual topics and applications could be addressed. I recall 17-21 and 17-25 being some of the Alpha age ranges that were used during this time.
That brings us to 2020. First of all, there’s the name change. As the fantastic evangelistic course “Alpha” has become more widespread, we saw the need to make our camp session distinguishable. Additionally, without its counterpart session Omega (which is the last letter of the Greek alphabet), the name Alpha (which is the first letter of the Greek alphabet) didn’t make as much sense. After a period of discussion with current and past Alpha directors, “Cornerstone” was chosen to reflect the vision that we need Christ as our cornerstone, and that a solid community of believers is the cornerstone of our adult faith.
Secondly, there’s the age range change. As you may have seen in our blog post about adjustments to Basecamp/Wilderness this year, the age group underneath Cornerstone has increased by a year, meaning that 15-, 16- and 17-year-old campers are grouped in that session. This allows Cornerstone campers to be an officially young ADULT session, with the ability to focus on post-secondary discussions and activities. The age range extends until 29, once again attempting to invite in the long-time Beacon crowd to be encouraged at the end of the summer months.
We see lots of reasons why these adjustments can help solidify the purpose and atmosphere of this session. We look forward to welcoming all campers who want to be a part of the historic summer when Alpha became Cornerstone!