Greetings from your new Camp de Benneville Pines liaison.
I am Cynthia Littleton, a longtime UUSM member, RE volunteer, and a 20-year de Benneville Pines camper. I’m honored to take on the responsibility of organizing Camp DBP (deBenneville Pines) activities on behalf of our wonderful congregation.
The baton has been passed to me from Karl Lisovsky and Joyce Holmen, who have served in this capacity for years and done an admirable job of fostering our congregation’s connection to the spiritual oasis that is de Benneville Pines. We are deeply grateful for their work. In Joyce’s case, it has truly been a lifelong commitment. (Ask her one day at coffee hour about her introduction to Camp DBP. It’s an inspiring story.)
Our camp is one of only eight officially designated UU camps in the United States. It is a precious resource owned by UU congregations in the Southwestern U.S., including California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Utah. For UUSM, it’s truly in our backyard — just about two hours east of Santa Monica (barring a Sig Alert on the 10 East).
I’m very close with camp director Janet James, the superhero in hiking boots who has run the nonprofit organization for 30 years. She has devoted herself to keeping de Benneville healthy as a financial entity, to upgrading its aged infrastructure (one capital fundraising campaign at a time) and always making its cabins and trails more accessible to a wider range of visitors.
I have seen first-hand the impact that Camp DBP can have on a person. My son Benson grew up on camp’s trails and in the Homet Lodge. (Pronounced Oh-may. IYKYK). I am eager to help foster that experience for our younger UUSM members.
For more than ten years this congregation has held its annual weekend at Camp DBP during the second or third week of September. For 2025, we are actively exploring the possibility of moving to September 26-28 or October 3-5. We’re also discussing the possibility of partnering for the weekend with Chalice UU of Newbury Park, near Thousand Oaks.
Linking arms with Chalice UU will help us boost overall attendance for the weekend, which in turn helps Camp DBP operate at maximum efficiency. More important, the spirit of camp is all about meeting new people who are destined to become dear friends, even if they live miles away.
I’ll share an update and more details on our congregational weekend with UUSM as soon as possible. In the meantime, here’s information on the sleep-away camps for kids and families that are available this summer. There are even more camps to explore on Camp DBP’s website (UUcamp.org). And please feel free to reach out to me by email at debenneville@uusm.org with any questions about our beloved Camp DBP!
