Founder and Director, Benjamin A. Smith
Benjamin and his wife Grace have been married since 1996 and have five children. Since 1991 Benjamin has been working with children and troubled youth in various capacities. Benjamin has traveled to 15 countries on 9 mission trips, two of which he was a team leader. Twice Benjamin has worked in orphanages overseas with troubled youth. Benjamin has also run a remodeling business for 10 years which specialized in everything from electrical to ceramic tile. In 2003 Benjamin and Grace founded Camp David of the Ozarks, as a summer camp for children of prisoners. Benjamin enjoys the outdoors, whether it is catching a hognose snake for the campers, hunting deer, or pointing out the raccoon tracks near the pond. Benjamin is gifted in teaching and working with children and youth and thoroughly enjoys his role as camp director. Benjamin oversees all the responsibilities of camp including fundraising, public relations, developing the camp program, overseeing construction, and directing summer camp.
Ministry Supervisor, Linda G. Collins
Linda has been working with young people most of her life. Seventh born in a family of 12, Linda discovered at a young age her love for teaching young people and helping them put what they have learned into practice. Linda began working with horses in 2003 and has worked at several camps and a training barn since. In 2009 Linda directed CDO’s summer Horse Program and has continued in that role ever since. In 2010 Linda organized and started CDO’s off-season horse riding lessons. Linda's other passion is discipleship which began in 2001 while she was in Cornerstone Community’s two year Bible and Discipleship school in Australia. After her return to USA, Linda earned her Bachelor’s degree in Christian Education at CCC. At camp, Linda enjoys the year round opportunity for her to pursue both her passion for horses and her heart for discipleship. Linda became full-time staff in 2011, and currently oversees the Internship program (The Catalyst) and the Mentoring program.
Intern, Rae Marie
Hi, I'm Rae, I've lived in southwest Missouri for most of my life and I've been involved in different camps before coming to Camp David. After almost two years of hearing about Camp David, I finally came to work as a wrangler this past summer. I loved being involved in the Christian community here at camp, as well as being challenged spiritually. At the end of the summer I decided I wanted to go deeper, and asked to be accepted as an Intern. Since being here full-time I’ve been able to explore and discover new talents and interests I didn’t even know I had, like public speaking, office work, photography, and training and caring for animals. I come from a larger city, so getting involved in the ‘small town life’ while living at camp has been interesting, and definitely an added bonus!
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Assistant Founder and Director, H. Grace Smith
Grace has been teaching children in classroom settings since she was 17 years old. After graduation 1993, Grace developed a specialty clothing business where she managed three ladies working for her and sold her products through a mail order catalog. Benjamin and her are high school sweethearts and knew when they married that God wanted them in full time ministry. Through opening their home to troubled youth, and serving as an assistant youth leader at church, Grace became passionate about ministering to kids and youth and seeing them come to their full potential. Grace organizes the office end of camp including graphic design, helps plan events for CDO, plants flowers and decorates the CDO facilities, and occasionally plays her flute on the worship team.  She also homeschools their five children ages 14 to one year. Their children all love camp where they make a lot of friends and see God answer prayer.
Intern, Laura Marchbank
 Laura grew up in a large family, and has done a lot of babysitting. She is a homeschool graduate, and was a part of the LAH Drama Group for five years. One of her favorite productions was "Taming of the Shrew" in which she played a lead role. Laura has worked at Camp David for the past five summers, in almost every capacity from counselor, to office help, and even substituting as an Event Director on the Leadership Team! Laura's love for working at camp and desire to grow more in Christ made her agree almost immediately to the Internship Program. Her creative abilities have placed her as the designer of the interns, creating fliers, business cards, display boards, and more.
Other Key Individuals:
Camp Nurse: Maria Carroll, RN
Food Service Director: Heather Light
Camp Grandparents: Tom & Lillian Thiery
Board Members:
- Ben Cohen, Vice President Sales & Marketing at Cohen Architechural Woodworking
- Julie Jones, Facilitator for the West Africa Partnership-CMF
- Jack Mentink, Principle at Integrity Engineering, Inc.
- Tom Manion, Vice President of Bloomsdale Excavation,
- Ron McClanahan, Elder at Church Without Walls
- Dan Smith, Nursing Assistant
- Ben Smith, Camp Director at CDO
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