The largest Pathfinder camporee ever held in Ecuador ended on November 4, 2024, with an unprecedented outcome: 222 baptisms. Under the theme Valientes ("Brave" or "Courageous," in Spanish), the gathering brought together more than 7,000 children and teenagers from 244 clubs from every province in the country, in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, between October 31 and November 4.
According to Notícias Adventistas, the official portal of the Adventist Church in South America, it was the largest event of its kind in the country's history and gathered the highest number of baptisms ever recorded at an Ecuadorian camporee. Among those present was a delegation from the Galápagos Islands, which crossed about a thousand kilometers of ocean to take part.
What a camporee is — and why this one made history
A camporee is the largest type of gathering in the Pathfinder movement: a multi-day camp that brings many clubs together in one place, with competitions, field activities, ceremonies, worship services and presentations. The word comes from the combination of "camp" with "jamboree," the great scouting gathering, and became a trademark of the Adventist program for children and teenagers aged 10 to 15.
In Ecuador, these gatherings usually take place by conference or by region. What happened in Santo Domingo was different in scale: a national camporee, with clubs from every province gathered at the same time. According to Notícias Adventistas, it was the largest event of its kind ever held in the country.
For those who follow the movement in Brazil, the comparison helps put it in perspective: gathering more than 7,000 Pathfinders in a single camp is a significant number for a country the size of Ecuador, which has a much smaller Adventist structure than Brazil's.
The numbers of the gathering
The data released by Notícias Adventistas at the end of the event gives the measure of the gathering:
| Indicator | Number |
|---|---|
| Pathfinders present | More than 7,000 |
| Participating clubs | 244, from every province |
| Baptisms | 222 (a record in the country) |
| New leaders invested | 208 |
| Blood bags donated | 361 |
| Duration | October 31 to November 4, 2024 |
The figure that stood out most in the coverage was the baptisms. The 222 recorded during the five days represent, according to the Adventist portal, the highest number ever reached at an Ecuadorian camporee — a milestone for a movement whose stated mission combines character formation with religious decision.
The delegation that came from Galápagos
Among the 244 clubs, one group drew attention for the distance traveled: the delegation from the Galápagos Islands, the Ecuadorian archipelago in the Pacific Ocean known worldwide for the biodiversity that inspired Charles Darwin's studies.
The islands lie about a thousand kilometers from the mainland, which makes taking part in a gathering in the country's interior a journey of considerable logistics — involving a sea or air crossing even before the overland travel to Santo Domingo. The presence of this group was noted by the organizers as a symbol of the camporee's national reach, which brought together everyone from the coast and the highlands to the islands.
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In addition to the religious and recreational programming, the camporee included an action of direct social impact: a blood donation campaign that resulted in 361 bags collected, Notícias Adventistas reported.
Donation campaigns are frequent at large Pathfinder events, which tend to tie the gathering to some return for the community that hosts them. Gathering hundreds of donations in a few days reinforces the movement's logic that the formation of young people should translate into service to those outside the club — a point that directly connects the Ecuadorian Pathfinder to the Brazilian one, since blood donation is a common banner at camporees throughout the South American Division.
208 new leaders and the South American presence
The gathering also marked the investiture of 208 new leaders. Investiture is the official ceremony in which the Pathfinder or the aspiring leader receives recognition for having completed the requirements of a class — in the case of leadership, a set of requirements that includes a minimum age, training and service in the club. It is the moment when the badge and the scarf of the new class are handed over, generally before the whole assembly.
Training more than two hundred leaders at once carries strategic weight: they are the ones who return to their home clubs to lead the units, teach honors and sustain local operations throughout the year. The camporee, in this sense, is not only a celebration — it is also a renewal of the structure that keeps the movement standing.
The event was attended by Udolcy Zukowski, leader of the Pathfinder Ministry of the South American Division, the administrative region of the Adventist Church that brings together eight South American countries, among them Ecuador and Brazil. The participation of a leader at that level in a national camporee signals the importance the gathering held within the division.
Ecuador on the Pathfinder map
The Pathfinder movement in Ecuador is coordinated by the Ecuadorian Union, one of the unions that make up the South American Division. Unlike Brazil, where clubs number in the thousands and regional camporees already gather tens of thousands of participants, Ecuador has a smaller base — which helps explain why gathering 244 clubs and more than 7,000 Pathfinders in one place was treated as a historic milestone.
National gatherings like "Valientes" serve a role of cohesion: they bring together clubs distant from one another, standardize practices and give Pathfinders from small towns the experience of belonging to something larger. For the Brazilian Pathfinder reader, the Ecuadorian episode is a reminder that the same uniform, the same classes and the same ideals move children and teenagers across the entire continent — from the Galápagos Islands to the interior of the neighboring country.
The numbers from this camporee were released by Notícias Adventistas in the official coverage of the event. As of the closing of this article, there is no confirmation of when Ecuador will hold its next national camporee on this scale.