FRONT AND CENTER

For years, Pyramid Life Center has been known as the “best kept secret” in the Diocese of Albany.

Brian Evers, director, is looking to change that this season.

“What I have always been told is that Pyramid Life is the ‘best kept secret’ in the area and we don’t want to be a secret anymore,” said Evers of the PLC, which is nestled among 750 acres of the Adirondacks with its own private lake and 16-acre island. “What we offer people is a chance to be in nature, at peace and in community where all are welcome and we mean that when we say that. I think it is coming up with (retreats and camps) that are unique that you might not get if you just rented a house on Lake Placid or Lake George. These are the things that we bring.”

And that will certainly be evident this year with Evers and Pyramid Life Center bringing in national speakers while partnering with parishes and Essex County on new retreats and programs. Evers said that a redesigned website (pyramidlife.org) will launch in May, and a marketing audit was done to better help Meghan Regan, PLC’s social media coordinator, reach target audiences.

“We are just trying to get the word out about how special a place this is,” Evers said. “For a lot of people this is a special place, myself included, and we want everyone to experience it.”

Another thing that is new is that this is Evers’ first year as just being the director of Pyramid. After the death of Sister Monica Murphy, CSJ, in 2019, Evers took over as director while remaining an associate director of Safe Environment for the Diocese of Albany. Since Nov. 1, however, he has been 100 percent focused on the PLC.

“It feels different in a sense. I am sitting at Chipmunk camp right now and I basically live up here full time,” Evers said during the interview with The Evangelist. “Working here full time there are some days when I wonder how I was able to do both jobs, but having the chance to focus solely on this place will help us move forward in a positive way. 

“We have a great foundation. I sit here because of the work of Sister Monica and we are just building on the foundations that she left for all of us.”

These foundations certainly are being added to by Evers. Sure there will be all the favorites this year — Mom’s and Dad’s Camps, Camp Breakaway, which is billed by PLC as “the premiere Catholic youth camp” in upstate New York, parish groups and day and overnight events for diocesan schools — but there are some new events worth noting.

A PARTNERSHIP WITH ST. CLEMENT’S
On March 30 and 31, PLC and St. Clement’s Church are bringing Father Leo Patalinghug — “the cooking priest” — to St. Clement’s in Saratoga Springs for two days of nourishment for the mind, body, soul and stomach during Lent. The event on March 30 is open to anyone, while March 31 is specifically for people in ministry. In November, Evers talked with Father Patalinghug  (platinggrace.com), who was one of the keynote speakers at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis.

“I think, for us, Pyramid wants to be that place where we can be a support. We can be a resource for people in ministry and Father Leo will bring some humor, some deep Lenten thoughts and he is also going to do cooking demonstrations,” Evers said. “We hope that it will be a fun morning to support people in ministry because it has not been easy the last couple of years as we enter our third year of COVID.”

THE WAY
“The Way” is a new healing retreat for female survivors of abuse and will be directed by Sue Stubbs, the victims assistance coordinator for the Archdiocese of Atlanta, who is a nationally certified counselor and a certified complex trauma professional with over 25 years of experience working with victims/survivors of abuse and trauma.

“The idea is that Sue will come — she has been doing these retreats all over the country — and lead this retreat and then our team of professional counselors and some clergy will get trained and we will be able to do these retreats for both males and females here at Pyramid,” Evers said of the retreat on May 20-22. “We are excited about that. This is a place where we offer peace, we offer community and (helping survivors of abuse) is certainly, through my years at Safe Environment, a topic that is close to my heart and will be very beneficial for the people that will attend.”

LEADERSHIP SUMMIT
On June 13-15, PLC will host a leadership summit for people in ministry and it will be led by Mike Patin (www.mikepatin.com), who was the director of youth ministry for the Archdiocese of New Orleans and now travels the country as a speaker giving workshops and talks to youth, adults, families, clergy, seminarians and schools, just to name a few.

“Mike has been someone that I have known for probably 20 years now,” Evers said. “What we really want those couple days to be is a chance for people in ministry to rest and recoup, but to also have a community where we can share the joys, the frustrations, the good things of the past couple years in ministry and we want to make this an annual event.
“I remember when I was first a youth minister over 20 years ago, we used to gather as ministers once a month and you would learn some professional development stuff, but the most important thing was the community that was formed and the chance to share tidbits, your joys, your frustrations. That idea that I am not really on an island all by myself, there are some people that have the same kinds of struggles that I have.”

CAMP MARIPOSA
Evers said applications are in place to partner with Essex County and the Eluna Foundation (elunanetwork.org) to bring one of its camps — Camp Mariposa — to Pyramid Life Center. Eluna runs two camps: Camp Erin is for children and teens (ages 6-17) dealing with the death of a significant person in their lives and Camp Mariposa is for youths (ages 9-12) affected by a family member’s substance abuse. Once PLC gets the green light, Camp Mariposa — which would consist of 30 kids and mentors — would replace Camp Max in July.

“(The kids) would learn resiliency skills and build community with the other kids and their mentors. (It would be) just a place where they can be a kid,” Evers said.