Annunciation Heights is a true gem in the Archdiocese of Denver — one that many folks have begun to fall in love with and make lasting memories at in the six years since its opening. As a ministry of the Archdiocese of Denver, the Heights seeks to be a faith-filled respite in the heart of the Rocky Mountains for youth and families to come and connect with God and each other in the beauty of creation.
Recently, executive director Kyle Mills decided it was time to move on after devoting six years of his and his family’s life to building the camp’s programs and culture from the ground up. To carry on the good work he started, Nathan Glassman was named as the new director of Annunciation Heights, who will pick up where Mills left off and continue the mission of Annunciation Heights. Glassman is by no means a newcomer to this mission, and he brings a wealth of expertise in architecture and construction to the role.
We sat down with Glassman to learn more about his background, his previous involvement with Annunciation Heights, and his hopes for the future of the camp.
Tell us a little about yourself and how you ended up coming on board as the new executive director of Annunciation Heights?
My background’s in architecture and construction. I’ve had a 12 year career running a design, build and development company. I started to get involved with Annunciation Heights and Camp St. Malo by being a board member of Camp St. Malo since 2015. I was really involved in trying to work towards the redevelopment of Camp St. Malo And the Emmaus Adult Retreat center. Then, when everything came about with Annunciation heights and the great opportunity that was, I was blessed to be a part of the team to acquire the property. At Fiat Fest this past year, I was able to talk to Kyle about what’s next for Annunciation Heights. One thing led to another, and I find myself here now, which is great because I just felt through that process the Lord really calling me to use the gifts that he has given me and developed over my career in design and development and construction to now serve his kingdom. The way that I look at it is Kyle and the team that he put together there laid a really great foundation and now I’m being called that continue to build on that with the team that’s there.
What do you see as the mission of Annunciation Heights and what are your thoughts on building, promoting, fostering and furthering those missions?
One of the first and biggest priorities is really to clarify that mission in a way that’s tangible for everybody. That is a question that I’ve asked everybody, even before this was a reality. I asked everybody from staff and I even had a meeting with the archbishop and that was one of my first questions to him, was ‘what to you is the mission of Annunciation Heights?’ My hope is that we will have a mission statement very soon. But without having that distinct phrase, I would say it’s to create a place where people can encounter the Lord in the beauty of his creation. It’s such a beautiful place there’s a great opportunity for people to connect with God’s creation with each other and have intentional conversations and time together, and most importantly, connect directly with God through the essence of awe and wonder.
The company that I founded 12 years ago and have run for the last 12 years, our mission statement is we exist to create places where people feel fully alive, places where people thrive because they feel connected to the people and places around them and places that foster a sense of awe and wonder for the world that we live in. So for me, it’s this beautiful thing that God’s pulling me out of the secular world to actually do that mission in a more tangible way with Annunciation Heights.
What are some of your hopes and desires for Annunciation Heights and Camp St. Malo?
I think there’s there’s a lot of opportunities to implement into the archdiocese and continue to grow upon what’s already started to serve the archdiocese in a more complete way. The camp’s pretty new and there’s still a lot of people within the archdiocese that don’t even know of the camp. So we’re going to continue that mission to get the word out, that we’re the archdiocesan camp, and to serve and to try to get youth and families up to camp to experience the beauty of the place and have a really profound experience. I think a big part of that is just trying to increase the exposure of the camp to the larger archdiocese.
To learn more about Annunciation Heights, visit annunciationheights.org.
