DECATUR - Susan Moninger gets excited about going to camp every summer.

This year her camping trip has taken her to Millikin University where Showchoir Camps of America is holding a camp that runs through Saturday.

"It's just still so fun," she said. "I think people can tell we have a passion about what we do."

Moninger, the director of choral activities at Elmhurst College, has co-directed the camp with Dwight Jordan since its inception 30 years ago. The idea for the camp began to form after the two Millikin alumni went to a choral workshop fresh out of college.

"We realized there weren't many people who knew much about show choir and we wanted to share it with them," Jordan, an award-winning choreographer, said.

Moninger said the camp almost never got off the ground.

"Two weeks before the first camp we didn't have many campers," she said. "We thought maybe we should write a letter cancelling and apologizing, and then in one day I went to the mailbox and we had 100 registrations in a single day."

There were 250 campers that first year, but this year there will be well more than 600. The campers range in age from 11 to college age. A second camp will be held this summer at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio. The camp has special workshops for directors so they can take back the skills they learn to their schools.

Judy Schnebly, an elementary music teacher in St. Joseph, Mich., has been attending the camp as a director for all 30 years.

"I learn something new every year," Schnebly said. "I think it's great and I can walk up to people who are well-known and ask them questions and have access to those people."

The duo also hand selects each clinician.

"The clinicians have to be very talented," Moninger said, "but it's more than that. They also need to have the right personality, be inspiring and be appropriate."

One of the best results of the camp, according to Jordan, is the networking.

"It's surprising how years later there are still connections," he said. "Probably every show I direct I find out there are performers who were past campers."

Past campers include Heather Headley who performed in "Aida" and "The Lion King" on Broadway and pop singer Lance Bass of 'N Sync.

"We were just two college students that never dreamed it would be this big," Moninger said.

ON THE NET

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