YMCA Camp Lawrence

YMCA Camp Lawrence is a residential summer camp for boys located on Bear Island in Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. It is owned and operated by the Merrimack Valley YMCA, based in Lawrence, Massachusetts. It is the only island-based boys camp in New Hampshire, and one of only several in the country. [http://www.acacamps.org American Camping Association website]

The Merrimack Valley YMCA also operates Camp Nokomis, a residential summer camp for girls, also located on Bear Island.

History

The Lawrence YMCA first offered a summer day camp for young boys in 1901 or 1902, but the origins of "Camp Lawrence" as a residential camp can be traced to 1906, with a 10-day program run in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. In late August and early September, 30 boys and 2 adults spent their days engaged in sports, swimming, boating and outings to nearby attractions. [Craig, Jon R., ed. "Camp Lawrence: 1906-1982". Self-published: 1983.]

For 8 of the next 9 years, the Lawrence YMCA ran similar camping programs in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, changing sites nearly every year. The sole year without a summer camp, 1911, was due to the YMCA's move to a new facility and the financial and administrative challenges involved with it. Beginning in 1916, however, the camp found a home at Loon Cove in Alton, New Hampshire, on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee.

The five years spent at Loon Cove saw tremendous growth. The camping season was expanded to a full 9 weeks, of which 4 weeks were the regular Boys Camp. Boy Scouts, choir boys, and "employed boys" from Lawrence used the facilities for the remainder of the season. The camp purchased its first motor launches for transportation and entertainment on the lake. From 31 boys in 1912, by 1920 the Boys Camp population had grown to 219 - more than the Loon Cove property could comfortably accommodate. In the fall of 1920, a committee from the YMCA, led by George Hamblet, surveyed several island areas before settling on the southern tip of Bear Island. The following spring, Loon Cove was abandoned and all the camp equipment (including the large tents) was transported to the new site.

The tents were erected on wooden platforms on the eastern shore of the property, facing across the lake towards the Ossipee Mountains. Those platforms still serve as the floors of 2 existing cabins in the Middler Unit. Other surviving structures from the early years on Bear Island include the Dining Hall, built in 1923, and the cabin on the western shore, known as West Beach, which dates to lumber operations on the island in the decade before the camp's arrival.

Camp Lawrence has continued to offer young boys summer camping opportunities on Bear Island since 1921.

Facilities

, New Hampshire. The property includes roughly convert|1.5|mi of shoreline; nearly a dozen locations along the shore are designated swim areas. Only three are proper beaches, however: East Beach is used for swim lessons, the adjacent Boating Beach hosts sailing and kayaking, and West Beach is home to waterskiing and canoeing.

Two large grassy fields are used for field sports. An asphalt basketball court and two clay tennis courts also serve as volleyball and dodgeball surfaces as needed.

A state-of-the-art ropes course, built and maintained by Project Adventure, draws many campers. Twenty elements rise thirty to sixty feet above the ground, including two zip-lines.

A large dining hall can accommodate up to 230 staff and campers at mealtimes. The kitchen is slated for complete renovation in the fall of 2009. The Hamblet Lodge provides a secondary enclosed program space, used for theatrical and musical productions and rainy-day activities.

Seventeen camper cabins can house between eight and fourteen campers and two to three staff members. Most camper cabins have been replaced or renovated within the past fifteen years. Fourteen cabins house the leadership staff and support staff, and a large infirmary houses the two camp nurses.

Two main boats are used for transportation between Camp Lawrence, Camp Nokomis and the Y-Landing Marina on Meredith Neck. The "M/V Bear II" can transport up to 120 people, while the "Weekeepeekee II" has a capacity of 27. These boats are used to transport all passengers, luggage, food and garbage on and off the island. Mail is delivered daily, Monday through Saturday, by the U.S. Mailboat "M/V Sophie C". In addition, Camp Lawrence owns four smaller motorcraft, a half dozen sailboats, fifteen kayaks and ten canoes. Two canoes are century-old "war canoes" which can hold up to ten people.

Camp program

Each session, boys camp serves roughly 150 campers between the ages of eight and fifteen. It runs for eight weeks, in four two-week sessions. Session breaks are on alternate Saturdays. Roughly one-third of all campers attend for longer than one session; a handful stay for the full summer.

Ten or eleven days of each session are devoted to regular activities. All boys take daily swim lessons, and they choose four other activities to complete their day. Available activities are waterskiing, canoeing, sailing, kayaking, snorkeling, ropes course, archery, riflery, soccer, basketball, flag football, fitness, Frisbee, general sports, ping pong, arts and crafts, tennis, lacrosse, floor hockey, music and newspaper.

Two or three days of each session are used for special programs. The most popular are the camp Olympics, held each year during the fourth session, and Orange & Grey, the camp color war held each year during the second session. The highlight of Olympics is Tableaux, the opening ceremony. Tableaux is a form of living statue, accompanied by music and text, in which a team of a dozen staff members is covered in aluminum paint and performs stationary and kinetic poses. Orange & Grey ends each year with the Omnibus, a 2-hour relay culminating in a 9-man war canoe race. Other special programs change from year to year; popular programs have included Fourth of July, Wild Wild West Day, King Neptune Day, Treasure Hunt, Up All Night, and Gak Night.

Boys camp is followed by a week-long Family Camp, in which families rent cabins and activity areas are open on a more flexible basis. Family Camp has been run since 1961, and some families have returned each summer for over forty years. [Merselis, Jack, ed. "Bear Island Reflections". Bear Island Conservation Association. Vicks Lithograph, 2000.]

taff

At the age of 15, campers are eligible to become counselors-in-training, or CITs. The three-year CIT program guides campers in the transition to staff members. 90 to 95 percent of the program staff each year is composed of graduates of the CIT program, and almost all leadership positions are filled with former CITs. Camp Lawrence is one of the few remaining camps whose leadership is made up entirely (with a few small exceptions) of homegrown leadership.

The remainder of the program staff, as well as many of the support staff, is made up of international staff members hired through [http://www.bunac.org BUNAC] , [http://www.campamerica.co.uk Camp America] , and [http://www.ccusa.com CCUSA] .

Camp Lawrence is directed by David C. Hetherly, now in his fifteenth year in that position. Hetherly is a former camper and staff member who, after a career in the Army and the private sector, returned to camp to keep busy in retirement.

Alumni support

Camp Lawrence Alumni provide valuable support in finances and time. The Bear Island Camps Association organizes alumni efforts to help both Camp Lawrence and Camp Nokomis. BICA also inducts important volunteers into its Hall of Fame at Alumni Day, held the first Sunday of August each year on Bear Island.

Among the most important alumni are the Hamblet family, whose involvement dates to the purchase of the Bear Island property in 1920. The Hamblets now own the Y-Landing Marina, where the camp boats dock on the mainland. The services the family has provided through the years have been incalculable.

External links

* [http://mvymca.org/camping/camp_lawrence_for_boys/ Camp Lawrence website]
* [http://www.mvymca.org Merrimack Valley YMCA website]

References