Staff Profile: Jesse “Schmoe” Garner

Some people don’t just work at camp—they let it shape who they are from the ground up! Meet Jesse “Schmoe” Garner, the Senior Director of Brand Engagement, whose Pine Cove journey began nearly twenty years ago when he first stepped onto property as a Forge student. From pioneering Pine Cove’s digital presence to refining the CampLife app, Jesse’s expertise is matched only by his love for a deep book and a great story. Read on to discover the hilarious retelling of his name game, hear the “story of hope” that led to meeting his wife, and be encouraged by his passion for ensuring that every camper has a life-changing encounter with the Gospel.

What is your job, and how did you get to Pine Cove?
I am our Senior Director of Brand Engagement, which means I get to think about how people interact with the Pine Cove brand including through all of our mass communications and our CampLife app in the summer. I oversee our summer media staff who take photos and videos at camp as well as our retail team. People experience our brand in a lot of different ways, and I love that I get to think about that while I’m here.

I never worked at Pine Cove as a summer staffer. I worked at a different camp through college, and then after I graduated, I went overseas for a little bit. I knew that I eventually wanted to do some kind of leadership training and discipleship program and had heard about the Forge, so I applied. When I was accepted, I came to Tyler to be a part of the second-ever class. Forge move-in day was literally the first time I ever walked through the gates of Pine Cove. The Forge ended up being such a pivotal experience for me. It was crazy, and I quickly fell in love with it. While I was a part of the program, I was offered a summer job at the Bluffs as work crew director, and then while I was working that summer, I was offered a full-time job there. That’s when my full-time journey at Pine Cove began, and I’ve held a variety of roles since.

How did you get your camp name?
I was named at a staff chapel, which was a little bit intimidating because literally every single full-time staffer at Pine Cove was there and I was new, but it was awesome. My full camp name is “Joe Schmoe McScooterson.” It’s a mouthful, but it combines multiple things. When I was in college, I ran a coffee shop for my student ministry, so the “Joe” part is in reference to a “cup of Joe,” I don’t actually drink coffee, so that makes it even more hilarious. 

The second part, “Joe Schmoe,” came because that’s what people call ‘that guy who knows everybody,’ which is who my roommates in college would always jokingly tell me I was. They’d tease that we couldn’t go anywhere without me running into someone I knew. 

“McScooterson” comes from the fact that I didn’t have my driver’s license when I started the Forge, even though I was 23. And so during the name game, someone said, “Well, he can’t drive a car. So obviously he drives a scooter,” which I did not, but that’s how the name game goes sometimes. Eventually Adrianne Miller stood up and was like, “I say we name him ‘Joe Schmoe McScooterson’”! I never thought when I got my camp name that I would still be using it after all these years, but here we are!

What are some of the things that you started or implemented at Pine Cove that you’re most proud of?
When I was working as an admin for the program team, I created the Gantt chart, which ironically was not actually a Gantt chart, but was just a way to track all of the things that needed to get done across all of the properties and to note who had completed what. That chart is still in use to this day, so that’s awesome.

Valerie Morby and I also started Pine Cove’s first Facebook page together back in the day, and of course it’s still up and running. Back then, Facebook was such a new and exciting thing!

I wasn’t involved in the creation of the CampLife app, but by the time it had been around for a year or two, I became heavily involved with it. There have been a lot of elements within the app that, over the years, I’ve had a significant hand in bringing about. Last year we put family camp schedules in the app for the first time and I was really excited to be able to do that. The camp update posts were another feature we added. I think Faith Banford and I have been able to do a lot to really grow the CampLife app from this bootstrap-startup-style piece of software to a pretty mature product. It’s been really cool to build over the years.

I’m super proud of the work that we did to create the first ever Pine Cove podcast and record it for three seasons. It was such a challenge taking camp and putting it into a podcast, but I’m so proud of how it turned out, and we had a blast making it! Anytime you get Taylor Jervis and Caroline Reyes on a mic together, great and crazy things are going to happen. 

It’s really crazy to go onto a camp property and see that a lot of these things are still in use, and it’s fun to know that I played a part in first getting them off the ground.

What is your favorite part of being a dad?
I just love getting to enter into my kids’ worlds. I love getting to do imaginative play with my kids or read books with them. Those are just a couple of my favorite things. Being a dad can be so overwhelming at times, but also, in the day-to-day moments, it really is true that God gives you the grace you need to keep moving forward. When it feels overwhelming, you get to step back and recognize that God will provide what you need for today, and then you remember that you don’t need to worry about tomorrow. It frees me up to really enjoy the time I get to spend with my kids.

Where is your favorite place in the world that you’ve traveled to?
I love art museums and I’ve been to a lot of really cool ones. When I was in college, I was with a group doing some mission work in Belarus and we took a weekend trip to Moscow. It was such a cool city to do some sightseeing in. Getting to see things like Lenin’s tomb, St. Peter’s Basilica, and Red Square in person was just crazy. Unfortunately, Moscow is now more difficult to visit, so I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to see it when I did. At another point, I got to explore the rooms of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I took a week while I was teaching overseas and went down to explore all the old temples in the area. That was really fun!

How did you meet your wife, and how long have y’all been married?
Lacey and I were married in 2013. I was working full-time at Pine Cove while she was doing the Forge program and, at that point, I kind of knew who she was, but not super well. There was even a time when she thought she was making a connection with me, and I asked her what her name was again, so this is a story of hope! When Lacey started working full-time in Tyler after finishing the Forge, she became friends with some of my friends, and we ended up running in the same social circle. That’s when we really got to know each other!

What is something most people don’t know about you that you think would help them to know you better?
I love to read, and I read a lot. Last year, I think I read about 40 books, and I’m always working on multiple books at a time. So anytime you want a conversation, you can just ask me what I’m reading and I’ll always have multiple answers for you. I like a lot of different genres, and that’s part of why I’m always reading several books at a time. I really love detective fiction, like Agatha Christie-type stuff. I also enjoy classic literature. I read “Middlemarch” last year and thought it was great. I really enjoy great Christian authors too. I love Jerry Bridges’ books, and have really been enjoying Justin Earley’s stuff recently. I’m also a fan of books that are just interesting, and by that I mean books that help me understand the world and other people better; the types of books written by authors like Malcolm Gladwell or Dan Hank are always fascinating to me. If I had to pick some top favorite books, I’d choose “Anna Karenina” and “War and Peace.” I love Tolstoy.

When you first started at Pine Cove, did you ever imagine that you’d still be here after all these years? What has kept you here for so long?
No, I did not. I thought I would probably be on staff for two or three years and eventually go and do something else. It’s been crazy to see how the Lord has provided opportunity after opportunity for me to continue to grow here. I’ve been here for 17 or 18 years now, and I’ve had a lot of different jobs along the way. It’s been neat to see how the Lord has grown my skills, my knowledge, and my ability to be able to serve at Pine Cove. 

And I love working here. I mean, the people are just incredible. And you don’t find that everywhere. You don’t get to work with such quality co-workers and serve a Gospel-centered mission in a lot of other places. I love that I can come into work every day knowing that my efforts directly impact the Kingdom. What I do helps us connect with campers and make sure that they have a great experience so that they keep coming back. Every bed we fill is another camper who gets to hear about Jesus and grow deeper in their relationship with Him. And that’s just such a cool privilege. I’m so grateful for not only being able to serve Pine Cove, but also for the ways I have grown here. I am a different person because of the influence of the people I’ve been able to work with, like Chris Sherrod, Craig Langemeier, and Susan Andreone. I’ve learned so much over the years because of the way that Pine Cove has invested in me, and I’m super grateful.

What is a lesson you learned during your time in the Forge program that has stuck with you throughout the different seasons of your life?
The Forge was so foundational for me. When I entered the Forge, so much of my identity had still yet to be formed. I didn’t fully know who I was. I didn’t know what it meant to be a man. I didn’t know what it meant to be a Christian man. And so getting to work through that in such an intentional way with leaders like Matt Lantz and Chris Legg was pivotal for me. I owe a lot of who I am today to the work that the Lord was able to do in my life through the Forge program. It’s been neat to see how over the years, the program has evolved, as it should, but also how the core reality of life transformation has remained the same. Part of the reason why I love continuing to teach and invest back into each new Forge class is because it was such a powerful and transformational experience for me personally.

How has camp impacted your family?
Family camp has been such a blessing to our family. We were in a really hard season of life when we first started going to family camp, and I still think back to what a blessing it was to have space and time to connect and process with my wife while our kids were being loved on in Cove Kids. 

One thing that’s been really cool as a parent is seeing my kids experience camp for themselves. My oldest boy went to overnight camp for the first time last year. After all my years of being at Pine Cove and working here full time, it was crazy to see the direct impact of the ministry on my own child. He’d been to Pine Cove City before, but for him to go away to overnight camp was a big deal, and he had a fantastic time! He can’t wait to go back. It was also really neat to see everything that we’ve built in the CampLife app over the years, and to receive it as a parent. It felt so full circle.

Do you have a standout camp memory or a favorite story from your time on staff?
I remember visiting the Southeast very soon after we had first acquired the Springs. I went out to grab some photos and videos of the new property so that we would have content to advertise with. It was so cool to be on that property in its untouched form, and now, to have seen it develop over the years. It’s just an amazing testimony to the Lord’s hand in the Southeast region and the ways that He’s brought so many people, resources, and connections together there.

It feels pretty crazy to think about all of the changes that I’ve seen at Pine Cove over the years; the way that the Woods has changed so dramatically, the way that the Bluffs has continued to grow. There didn’t used to be a path through the Bluffs, and now there’s this great concrete path through the center of camp and it’s really beautiful with the pickleball courts beside it. None of that existed when I first came on full-time. It’s been cool to see how Pine Cove has continued to grow and flourish as God has blessed and provided for us.