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Massawepie camp carries out Boy Scout mission

Summer camp snapshots

A Boy Scout descends a rappelling wall at Massawepie Scout Camps. (Enterprise photo — Dana Hatton)

GALE — Nestled in 4,100 acres of wooded land on the 500-acre Massawepie Lake and eight other bodies of water, the Massawepie Scout Camps are immersed in the Adirondacks’ sense of remoteness.

The Boy Scouts of America bought the property in 1951, where the Childwold Park House hotel welcomed guests from 1889 to 1909, and opened the camp in 1952. [Editor’s note: The dates the BSA bought and opened the camp have been corrected.]

“It’s just a really pristine Adirondack location that you don’t get to really experience from other places around the northeastern United States,” said Stephen Hoitt, scout executive and CEO of the Seneca Waterways Scout Council. “From the remoteness, you get to enjoy Adirondack life. It’s quiet. You’ll see moose, deer, loons.”

Tim Webster, a former counselor-in-training now in his first year on staff, said he likes the detachment.

“You don’t hear a lot of drama, I guess you can say,” Webster said. “If your family calls with a problem, you probably don’t hear about it until it’s resolved itself. I’d just say I like it here. I like consistency. I like the outdoors.”

Boy Scouts stop making crafts to pose for a group photo at Massawepie Scout Camps’ Pioneer Camp. (Enterprise photo — Dana Hatton)

Ninety-nine percent of campers who attend are Boy Scouts, and at Massawepie they can earn merit badges toward ultimately becoming an Eagle Scout, the highest rank. On a trail around Massawepie Lake, for instance, scouts complete a 5-mile hike for a merit badge.

“For us, our camp facility is really more of an outdoor laboratory, where kids can work on skills and values geared towards character development,” Hoitt said. “Kids are earning badges but working on leadership development, and working with teams and learning a lot of skills.”

Matt Thurston, who started scouting in just first grade, is now 18 years old and an Eagle Scout.

“I’ve been coming for about seven years,” he said. “I was on the waterfront, and now I’m a handicrafts counselor. I love it here; it’s a beautiful property. These are my best memories, and I like coming here to stay involved.”

After breakfast, at which scouts can make their own food or eat in the dining hall, boys can start earning merit badges from about seven to eight different programs. The camp offers soccer, a BMX biking course, a high ropes course, archery, shooting, sailing, log rolling, kayaking, leather making, woodworking, cooking, first aid, rescue, pioneering, orienteering and much more.

Directors Don DeClerck and Jon Northrup pose outside the Massawepie Scout Camps’ office. (Enterprise photo — Dana Hatton)

“It’s really about carrying out the scouting, instilling values in people and how it’ll prepare them for life,” said Hoitt. “It’s really about carrying out the mission of the Boy Scouts of America.”

Nick Dahlen, first-year assistant director, is in his seventh year and said he likes everything about camp.

“It gives kids opportunity to experience all different facets of scouting we have here,” he said.

All of the programs include book work and demonstrating one’s knowledge in mastering the craft. For archery, the scouts have to make a bow and an arrow, and complete the shooting to earn the necessary points to earn a badge. Each program is a week long.

Most have just a one-week experience, but many scout groups come for more than one of the six weeks of regular summer camping. There are two additional weeks for family programs.

Massawepie also runs year-round camps such as their high adventure trek camps or their weekend camps, where local boys and girls scouts come during the winter or spring. Massawepie also leases parts of its property to outside organizations — such as St. Lawrence University, which offers its Adirondack Semester in the fall across the lake from the scout camp.

About 2,000 kids arrive during the summer, including 180 different scout groups. They stay in heavy-duty green canvas two-person tents that sit on platforms off the ground. Like many Adirondack summer camps, Massawepie has a high return rate: 70 to 80 percent of campers come back year after year. Most are from the greater Rochester and Finger Lakes region, but the remainder are from all over the northeastern United States, from Massachusetts to Virginia.

“For us, one of the neat things is Massawepie is really a destination camp for a lot of scout families around the northeastern United States; we are pretty proud of that,” Hoitt said. “We do have growing pains, though. We have to look at rebuilding a new dining hall and other things to help accommodate the growing size.

“We’ve been pretty blessed to have a lot of local communities in the Adirondacks to help, and we couldn’t have done it without our community partners, and we are pretty thankful for them as well.”

Don DeClerck, who has been with the Boy Scouts for 30 years, completed his first mile swim and caught his first trout at camp. To him, this place is very special. [Editor’s note: DeClerck’s last name has been corrected.]

“As a father, the program helped my boys become fine young men,” he said.

Anyone interested in more information about the camp or in reserving a campsite can call the Seneca Waterways Council at 585-244-4210.

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