Brenda Clark’s Nearly 70-Year Connection to Camp

For most 6th graders around the county, 6th Grade Camp at Cuyamaca Outdoor School is a unique week long experience learning about the outdoors, singing camp songs, and making fun memories with friends that they’ll remember for years to come. However, for one camper, that memorable week became an important seed of inspiration, motivation, and joy for her career and beyond.

Brenda Clark attended Cuyamaca Outdoor School in April 1957 with her Oak Park Elementary School 6th grade class. She enjoyed her time at camp, hiking along the old monkey bridge and spending time outdoors with friends. In the years that followed, she’d return as a high schooler with her youth group for retreats.

In 1991, Clark’s connection to Cuyamaca Outdoor School changed forever. She arrived on the pine needle-covered paths once more, but this time as a 6th grade teacher bringing the inaugural group of 25 students from Lakeside Middle School to camp. She continued to come back with students every year for the next 17 years and served as the camp experience coordinator for the school.

Clark saw Cuyamaca Outdoor School as a special place where so many of her students, especially those who struggled in the classroom, would really flourish.

“I’ve seen so many kids that didn’t do well in the classroom, but they’d come up here and just blossom,” said Clark. “This was something they could just identify with. The outdoors was just a great classroom — they’d learn about the environment and nature, and then these kids would take that back home with them. They’d remember everything they’d learned because they were learning it in a different way that really worked for them.”

In 2008, Clark retired from Lakeside Middle School, but her work with Cuyamaca Outdoor School wasn’t over. Soon after teaching her last class, Clark began volunteering weekly at Cuyamaca.

“I asked if they take volunteers and they said, ‘Yeah, we’ll take a volunteer!’,” said Clark. While they were enthusiastic about her offer to help, Cuyamaca Outdoor School hadn’t received much volunteer help in the past and had to find a role for her. For the first few months, she helped with tasks as they came up, but she quickly found a role in assisting teachers as they arrived at camp each week. She welcomes them every Monday morning, helping them get checked in and settled in their assigned cabin.

“I’ve been where they are before, and I just want to give back and help make their first day here a little easier,” she explained.

“She took care of the kids for 17 years, and now she’s been taking care of us ever since,” said Dustin Burns, outdoor education project specialist for SDCOE’s Outdoor Education team.

Burns and Clark have known each other well for over 30 years, working together and partnering often since Clark began bringing her students to Cuyamaca in the early ‘90s.

“We have so many stories from our time working together over the years,” Burns said. “Brenda was always up for fun little pranks and practical jokes and has always been just a joy to have up here at camp with us.”

Looking back, Clark has helped make sure hundreds of students and teachers have access to what she believes is a truly important experience for kids at a critical time in their lives.

“There were times I had to fight to keep the camp experience at Lakeside Middle,” recalled Clark. “They’d look to cut expenses and they’d tried to cut camp, but we fought to keep it. It’s such an important experience, and we did what we could to keep it.”

With National Volunteer Week celebrated in April, SDCOE’s Outdoor Education team would like to give a very special thank you to Brenda for her decades of support. Her time and dedication to the program has left a lasting impact on Cuyamaca Outdoor School, helping shape experiences for both students and staff for generations.