Berea Leadership Experience

Berea Leadership Experience Day Camp for kids, rising 2nd-8th graders, focused on leadership skills and conflict resolution.

Join kids all over Berea and beyhond for a unique camp experience this summer. Berea Leadership Experience focuses on mindful movement, media literacy, conflict resolution, and connecting with nature, giving campers the tools to successfully navigate the kind of everyday conflicts we all experience. Inspired by the life and work of Michelle Tooley, Berea Leadership Experience will nurture Berea's newest generation of leaders.

02/08/2025

Friends, we will be moving to an every other year schedule for Berea Leadership Experience, so will be back in the summer of 2026. It takes a lot of time and effort, mostly volunteer, to put on camp and we are trying to make it more sustainable for organizers. If you want to be part of our pre-camp leadership team next year, let us know!

07/20/2024

We just closed out our 5th year of the Berea Leadership Experience!! Our staff and friends of BLE hope that everyone is walking away feeling inspired, more confident, with new friends, and equipped with tools to help navigate this world - which can often be worrisome - in a peaceful way. Thank you for trusting us with your little leaders! Enjoy this video with highlights from our time together!!

Thank you to our sponsors:
Berea Women’s Club (Older)
Berea Friends Meeting
Union Church Berea
Berea Kids Eat
GFWC Berea Woman's Club
Print My Threads
Along with many individuals who contributed to provide staff meals and camper scholarships!

Special thanks to everyone who showed up with their full selves and shared their amazing talent with us:

Madison County Public Library - Ashley Hammond
Jonathan Beatty “Chief Bookman” of I Love Books
Keith Bullock
Sam Gleaves and Deborah Payne
Councilwoman Katie Startzman of Native Bagel Company Nightjar
JonathanandLeslie Clark
And ALL of the incredible staff and steering committee! THANK YOU! 💙

Send a message to learn more

When asked what positive messages or ideas they’d like to put out into the world…Plant treesRead more booksTurn off elec...
07/20/2024

When asked what positive messages or ideas they’d like to put out into the world…

Plant trees
Read more books
Turn off electricity (or save)
Get outside
Don’t litter
We are 98% related by DNA
How to make bow and arrow
Pick up trash
Spread LOVE!

The kids are alright. 💙

Every year, we revisit the life and mission of Dr. Michelle Tooley, the peace and social justice professor who envisione...
07/19/2024

Every year, we revisit the life and mission of Dr. Michelle Tooley, the peace and social justice professor who envisioned the Berea Leadership Experience…this is our fifth year of camp since its creation after her passing. May her good work continue on through all of us!

We’re so lucky to have real-life peaceful leaders living amongst us… thank you, Councilwoman Katie Startzman (and owner ...
07/18/2024

We’re so lucky to have real-life peaceful leaders living amongst us… thank you, Councilwoman Katie Startzman (and owner of Native Bagel Company and Nightjar), for teaching us how to organize to create the community we wish to see!

Nothing better than a creek day with Ms. Luna of Berea Earth Warriors! We cooled off in the swimming hole, played with c...
07/17/2024

Nothing better than a creek day with Ms. Luna of Berea Earth Warriors! We cooled off in the swimming hole, played with crawdads, and watched schools of tiny fish swimming around!

Thank you so much Mr. Keith Bullock for teaching us about Muhammad Ali, both the boxer and exemplar of peace this mornin...
07/17/2024

Thank you so much Mr. Keith Bullock for teaching us about Muhammad Ali, both the boxer and exemplar of peace this morning! 💢🥊

Taking savasana, or “corpse pose,” quite literally, aren’t we! 😆
07/17/2024

Taking savasana, or “corpse pose,” quite literally, aren’t we! 😆

07/16/2024

“Yellow Submarine” has been a camp favorite every single year…opening each day with song is a practice of setting positive and affirming intentions for our day.

Reading is essential for any peaceful leader to successfully navigate the world. Today, we dedicated our afternoon to ge...
07/15/2024

Reading is essential for any peaceful leader to successfully navigate the world. Today, we dedicated our afternoon to getting excited about reading, believing in ourselves, and celebrating artistry with Chief Bookman, Jonathan Beatty of I Love Books, and a visit from the Madison County Public Library bookmobile!!

06/20/2024

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We're so excited to be working with Print My Threads again this year for our t-shirts (every camper gets one)! As we get...
06/18/2024

We're so excited to be working with Print My Threads again this year for our t-shirts (every camper gets one)! As we get closer to camp in July, we have a few spots open for last minute registrations...if you were thinking about signing your kid up, there is still a little time! The online form is here: https://shorturl.at/ioyDU
July 15-19th, 9am-2pm
Rising 2nd-8th graders.

We're excited to share our theme for this summer's experience, "I am enough." You may recognize the inspiration as comin...
03/20/2024

We're excited to share our theme for this summer's experience, "I am enough." You may recognize the inspiration as coming from the Barbie movie!

The dates for this year's Berea Leadership Experience are July 15th-19th and registrations will be opening soon! As always, we accept every camper regardless of their ability to pay (until all spots fill up) because of generous individuals and organizations like you! If you'd like to sponsor a camper or make a general donation, please do so at this link: https://bit.ly/3mr93OJ

We also have spots open on our Steering Committee so reach out in a message to the page to express your interest!

📅Mark your calendars for this summer's Leadership Experience! And as always, your contributions ensure our leadership ex...
01/23/2024

📅Mark your calendars for this summer's Leadership Experience!

And as always, your contributions ensure our leadership experience is available to any child regardless of their ability to pay. Support Berea's leaders of tomorrow TODAY! https://bit.ly/3mr93OJ

Registrations will open soon!

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Berea, KY

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Videos

We got our steps in Wednesday with Deborah Payne and Sam Gleaves, dancing and singing to folk music!

“Yellow Submarine” has been a camp favorite every single year…opening each day with song is a practice of setting positive and affirming intentions for our day.

“I just hit the library, they said come on INNNNNNNNNNNNN…They can’t read like us, they can’t lead like us, cuz they not like us!”

After sharing with us the fascinating life of opera singer, Marian Anderson, “Sistah La La” challenged campers to give her any genre of music and she sang “This Little Light of Mine” in each genre, including hip hop, jazz, classical, pop, rock, country, blues, and ‘calming’. There was no genre the campers gave her that she couldn’t do! Then, she sang a song she wrote about her BaBa (grandfather)…it was as if the lyrics were written just for this camp!

First day of camp “on the books” and it was definitely a day all about books! Yesterday, we welcomed “Chief Bookman”, Jonathan Beatty of I Love Books, to camp. After watching one of his music videos about books, a camper asked him if he could freestyle for them … it became a major highlight of the day! Thank you for sharing your love for books and inspiring our campers to read, Chief Bookman! #bookbybook 📚💕

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