Staff Profile: Hamilton “Dreamland” Bromhead

At Pine Cove, even our technology team is seriously fun, and Hamilton “Dreamland” Bromhead is here to prove it! Get to know all of the layers of Hamilton as he takes you through his different roles at Pine Cove, what it was like to be an asparagus, and his favorite rice spots. (Yes, rice!) Don’t miss one of his iconic creations, “Handz on the Van,” or reading about what the Lord is teaching him right now. 

Tell us about yourself!
I grew up in Muscle Shoals, Alabama—It’s a small town, like 15,000 people, and I was homeschooled for most of growing up, but I did go to public school. That’s a big deal just because people mostly know that I homeschooled, so they don’t know that I also ended up in public school. Then I went to the University of Alabama where I studied Management Information Systems and then also got my Master’s there.  My minor was in creative writing and film.

While I was at Alabama, my faith became really my own. It’s the first time that I saw people, college students, who wanted to actually follow Jesus—not just go to church because that’s what they were required to do. I then learned about Pine Cove, which played a really big role in my faith. And honestly, it was the Pine Cove interview that had a huge impact in my life. I remember I cried in my interview just because of the severity of the questions, and the guy lovingly told me the importance of knowing what I believed. And so after, I thought, “I have to work there.” 

So I went to work in 2015 and was a counselor at the Timbers. Afterwards I thought, “Okay, that’s my one summer, and now I’ll do something else.” And then came back a second summer, and then came back a third summer after I graduated. I had actually accepted a job in Dallas working for Geico and was planning to do one last summer as a program director. And long story short, at the end of the summer they offered me a Men’s Director role. But I had already accepted the Geico job a year prior, had already moved out there and signed a lease, and I wanted to be a man of my word. I called my boss to talk about the situation and crazily enough he was a believer and he told me, “Follow the Lord. Do what you want to do. You’re not burning a bridge.” So I moved to Tyler, and was the Timbers Men’s Director for three years and it was amazing. I loved the job. It was really fun.

Later, I walked with the Lord on how to have a healthy work life balance, and ended up becoming part of the innovation team at the Pine Cove Headquarters (HQ). There’s a Watermark program called Regeneration that made a huge impact on me during that time, and I’m still involved with that today at South Spring Baptist Church. I’ve been leading a group there for the last three to four years, and have loved inviting people into healthy living. So the main things that keep me busy are Regeneration, my discipleship group that I’m a part of, and I really enjoy CrossFit. 

My mom is now in Florida, my sisters, who worked for Pine Cove for a while, are in Colorado, and my brother is in California. So we’re pretty spread out but we are really close. I love my family, they’re a huge blessing and I’m really grateful for them.

What’s your favorite project that’s been completed on the innovation team?
So the last two years we’ve worked on building out a new recruiting software! Throughout the project, we found a really good groove and formed a healthy team as we worked together. I was very passionate about recruiting and I wanted to help those team members who were having trouble with the previous system, so I’m really thankful I got to see that come to fruition. I love customer service. I love walking up to people and saying, “How can we help? What do you need? What can we do?” That’s a big passion of mine.

What is your go-to activity when you’re relaxing or want to focus on something?
I love any kind of game! On the weekends, my friends and I like to play a lot of Spike Ball, racquetball, any kind of sport, any kind of board game—really anything that’s a competition I love. The camaraderie is really fun. I also like to write. I love writing anything creative and overall enjoy creating things whether that’s music or short films. I wrote a pilot script for a TV show in college which made it to a few film festivals. One of them even got selected to go to the LA premiere, which was pretty cool. And then I’m working on another TV show pilot right now! 

Do you prefer to create short films or TV series?
When I was a Men’s Director, that setting allowed me to have an outlet for creating videos. I mean, we’ve created the “Camp Is Here” song or the “I’m At Camp Right Now” song and video—all of that kind stuff is really fun for me. Now I don’t actually go out and make films, I would prefer to write scripts.

Do you have a favorite film or a favorite script that you really enjoy?
I like anything Christopher Nolan—I enjoy all of his work a lot. Or “Shrek 2,” that script is really, really good. I laugh every time at something new in that movie. It has a lot of layers! 

What are your favorite skit characters you’ve been?
One summer I was a character named “Bellboy” and essentially it was created out of Trent McClure and Kelsey Kaigler (they were our our program directors that summer) handing me a bell and they were like, “Hey, this bell, we just want you to stand on stage and create a character from it.” So Bellboy was a really confidently unaware character, socially. Randomly enough, he became a fan favorite! Also a really fun character was when I was “Aspera-Guss,” and I literally just saran wrapped an oar to my back and was a living asparagus. I wrapped my hands completely above my head, so it was really physically brutal, but it was a really funny character. I just would try to find different props and attach them to my body and just see what character came out of it!

How does ministry in the HQ compare with your ministry that happened when you were physically out at camp?
I loved the one-on-one mentorship of working with the summer staff of just like, “Hey, my life was changed because of my men’s director, Monty, and my director, TJ, and I want to invest in your life the same way.” I think the ministry I get to do with HQ is focused on helping people like their job more, and I really enjoy that. And so getting to come to work every day and figure out, “Okay, how can I help this person enjoy their job more? What are things I can remove? What are barriers I can eliminate? What are the processes I can help change?” And so HQ is a different type of impact, but I enjoy both of them a lot.

Tell me about your 30th birthday. What was that like?
It was a surprise party! TJ asked me to go get lunch because he was in town, but then he told me he needed to run by the HQ to pick something up. When we got there, a bunch of my friends and family were there, even from out of town! The whole party was centered around my awkward senior photo. So for context, I was homeschooled up until the 10th grade when I went to public school, and I loved it. When it was time for senior pictures, the guy announced, “You can bring props if you want.” I took that as, “Oh, everyone’s bringing props.” So the day comes, and everyone is waiting in line, and I brought my entire drum set.

We spent 35 minutes setting up my drum set while everyone was waiting. And then I also brought my Bible and it was one of the big MacArthur Study Bibles. And so the photographer took a bunch of drum photos and then he had me pose with my Bible. So one of the photos is me looking up to the heavens with a light and my Bible open. So at the party, one of my good friends, Noah Rogers, came in and took everyone’s photo in that exact same style. And so everyone had shirts with that photo on it. My mom went all out and did a great job. I felt really cared for, but I’ll never get away from that photo. 

We also played some games. They had a “Get to Know You” game where my mom had prizes with that photo on it. So there was a mouse pad with that photo, a gift bag with that photo, a Frisbee with that photo, even a huge banner with the photo!

Do you ever get stopped in the grocery store for Handz on the Van?
If I ever go back to the Timbers, that’s pretty much all that I’m known for. It got really big at Pine Cove City, randomly. I had one kid recognize me at church, but my favorite thing I’ve heard is that a coworker’s daughter recorded the video playing on her computer with her iPad so she could watch the video even if she didn’t have internet access. When I heard that I was like, “Guys, we made it. The kids are addicted.”

The video was created when I was a director—we were at Training Week and they made an announcement saying, “Everybody put your hands on the van at this time.” It’s their way to say, “Let’s get in the van and let’s leave at this specific time.” And I looked across at one of my staffers and I was like, “Hands on de van,” in a funny accent. “It makes me want to danz.” So we just kept going off of that and I was like, “Dude, this is funny. This is a video.” So on my off day, I literally listened to “Crab Rave” on repeat for an hour and wrote that whole thing out to the vibe of the song and then got some guys together and I was like, “Hey, I think we need to make this a video.”

So we recorded a bunch of shots, and then me and the highlight videographer just sat down for four or five hours to edit it and laughed and laughed. We didn’t know how people were going to take it the first time we showed it, but soon enough campers were requesting it non stop.

What’s the story behind your camp name?
So my camp name is “Dreamland.” They had asked if I had any dreams, and I actually dream every night pretty vividly, and I almost always remember my dreams. They also asked me my favorite food, which at the time was barbecue. And then also they asked me what I like to do in my free time, and I told them about how much I like to travel. Lots of layers, but you combine all of that with the fact that there’s a famous barbecue restaurant in Tuscaloosa called “Dreamland Barbecue,” and you get Dreamland! 

What does your ideal Saturday include?
We have a community WOD (workout of the day) at CrossFit every other Saturday where everyone comes and it’s free! So first I’d have a slow good morning, then go to community WOD. Afterwards, I’d go play racquetball with Luke McGrath and beat him. That’s actually very important. And then I’d go play a fun, competitive game of Spikeball. Then I’d take a breather and probably end the day with board games or some kind of game night with friends.

What are some of your favorite things right now?
I really love rice. I probably eat rice at least once a day, if not twice. My favorite spots for rice in Tyler are a rotation between Chipotle, Freebirds, and Go Fish. I also love hibachi fried rice, but without the show.

Another favorite of mine lately has been Ember coffee mugs. Our innovation team all got one and they’re no joke. They keep your coffee at the perfect temperature—they’re awesome. Right now I’m reading John Mark Comer’s, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.” It’s a kick in the pants, but trying to slow down has been good. 

A forever favorite of mine will be to travel—I try to go international every year. I recently made it my goal to go to seven countries this summer because I realized then I’ll have gone to 30 countries in 30 years! So I have a trip planned in August to go to seven countries. Right now, the plan is to visit France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Hungary, Czechia, and Germany! 

What is the Lord teaching you right now?
I think the biggest thing right now is recognizing that busyness is an idol. And for me, that idol is rooted out of not wanting to disappoint anyone. So the Lord has been leading me to fight for creating time of silence and solitude with Him. This, for me, is really uncomfortable. Embracing the unnatural isn’t a steady habit in my life, so I’m fighting for that. But the question I’ve been asking myself is, “Is He worth giving up your life for?” And I can’t answer truthfully if I don’t spend time with him. And then the other thing He’s teaching me is knowing that you can’t grow in your relationship with Christ if you don’t first acknowledge where you are. And so in my discipleship I’m doing a lot of acknowledging where I am, and then considering what the best next step is, while inviting other people into that.