Types of camporee

Camporee is the magic word of the Pathfinder Club — the Adventist Church's program for young people aged 10 to 15. But when someone announces “there's going to be a camporee!”, the first question is: which one? There's the campout with the neighboring clubs, and there's the giant gathering that fills an entire city with tents. This guide shows the full ladder, step by step.

⛺What is a camporee, anyway?

A camporee is an official campout that brings together several Pathfinder Clubs at the same time, over a few days, with tests, events, ceremonies, and spiritual programming. If you want the full explanation, we have an entire article on what a camporee is.

Here the mission is different: understanding the types of camporee. Because yes, there's more than one — and the difference between them changes everything: the size of the event, the distance of the trip, the cost, and even how often each one happens.

🪜Why do camporee levels exist?

The Adventist Church organizes its clubs in layers, like a soccer championship. First comes your club (the team). Several nearby clubs form a region (think of the municipal league). Regions form an Association or Mission (the state level). Associations form a Union (the national level). And Unions from eight countries form the South American Division, the SAD — the “Libertadores” of Pathfinders.

Each of these layers can organize its own camporee. That's why a Pathfinder can experience very different events across the same “career”: from the small campout with the neighborhood clubs to the gathering with tens of thousands of people.

The one who defines this layered structure and the general rules of the movement is the Manual Administrativo do Clube de Desbravadores, the official document of the South American Division that works as the clubs' “rulebook”. The rules for each individual camporee, though, are in that event's own guidelines manual.

Names and the exact frequency vary from field to field; check your Association's or Mission's official calendar.

🏘️How does the regional camporee work?

It's the entry-level step — and, for many people, the first camporee of their life. It brings together the clubs of your region: a group of nearby clubs, usually from the same city or neighboring cities, accompanied by a regional coordinator (a volunteer leader who looks after those clubs).

Because it happens close to home, it's the most accessible camporee: a short trip, a lower cost, and familiar faces everywhere. It's also where the club “trains” for real camping — pitching tents, cooking over a fire, competing in knot-tying events, drill, and much more.

And the frequency? Here's the honest answer: each field sets its own calendar. In many places the regional camporee happens quite often, sometimes every year — but that's not a single rule set by the church. The right way to find out is to ask your club's leadership.

🗺️What's the difference between an Association camporee and a Union camporee?

The Association (or Mission, in newer fields) is the church's “state headquarters”: it administers the clubs of a state or part of one. The Association camporee brings together clubs from that entire territory — usually thousands of uniformed Pathfinders in the same place.

The Union sits one step higher: it groups several Associations and Missions together, covering an entire country or a large part of one (Brazil has several Unions). The Union camporee is rarer and bigger: clubs from different states, different accents, and that feeling of “wow, this movement is huge”.

In practice, the difference is the size of the map: region = neighborhood, Association = state or field, Union = country (or a good part of one). And each step tends to happen less often than the one before it — precisely because the logistics grow so much.

🌎What is the SAD Camporee, the giant of Barretos?

It's the final boss of the ladder. The South American Division (SAD) is the Adventist Church's headquarters for eight countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. When it organizes a camporee, clubs from all those countries camp together.

The first one took place at the turn of 1983 into 1984, in Foz do Iguaçu (PR), with about 5,000 Pathfinders. Since then the event has exploded: in 2019, the V Camporee brought together almost 100,000 people in Barretos, in the interior of São Paulo, adding up the two editions held that year.

The next chapter is the VI SAD Camporee, in January 2027, again in Barretos, at Parque do Peão: 120,000 participants expected, the theme “Always a Pathfinder”, and two stages — Alpha (January 5-10) and Omega (January 12-17) — because not everyone fits at once. Registration is done through the club, which tracks requirements via SGC, the official club management system.

It will be the largest gathering of Pathfinders at an event of this kind in the world, according to organizers.Notícias Adventistas, on the VI SAD Camporee (2027)

🌍Is there a world camporee?

Sort of — and this question confuses a lot of people. There's no camporee organized by the church's world headquarters, but there is the International Pathfinder Camporee, held in the United States by teams linked to the North American Division. It works as the movement's most international gathering: every 5 years, more than 50,000 Pathfinders from about 100 countries.

The 2024 edition took place in Gillette, in the state of Wyoming (USA), with the theme “Believe the Promise” — tickets sold out and attendance topped 60,000 people. The next one already has a date: August 6-12, 2029, at the same location, with the theme “Stand Strong”. The full story, including the famous Oshkosh era, is in our article on the Oshkosh camporee.

🎒How many camporees will you experience by age 15?

Let's do the fun math (with a healthy dose of “it depends”). If you join the club at 10 and stay until 15, that's about six years on the road. In that time, it's quite possible to catch several regional camporees, a few Association ones and — depending on your field's calendar — one Union camporee.

And the SAD one? That's a matter of luck with the timing. Anyone between 10 and 15 in January 2027 will experience the VI Camporee right in their Pathfinder “window”. It's the kind of event many people only get to catch once during this stage — that's why clubs start preparing years in advance (age and participation rules for each event are in that camporee's official guidelines manual).

The moral of the story: a camporee isn't a single event, it's a ladder of experiences. Start with your region's step and keep climbing — and when the big opportunity comes, be ready. Our guide on how to prepare for a camporee helps with exactly that.