RKY camp revitalization project

Jeff Green | Aug 02, 2017

RKY camp has been a fixture on Eagle Lake, near Parham, since the 1930’s, and its roots go back to the 1920’s, when W. Goodfellow allowed the Kingston YWCA to run boys camps on part of his property on Eagle Lake for two weeks each summer.

In July of 1930, Goodfellow and J. Snider sold a 25 acre parcel of land to the Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs of Kingston, and the YMCA provided in kind contributions of equipment, providing for a three way partnership to form the RKY Eagle Lake Camp. The original deed was put under the trusteeship of the 3 representatives, one from each of the 3 organizations: J.C. Reynolds (Rotary), C.E. Walker (YMCA), and W.H. Herrington (Kiwanis).
By the mid 1930’s the camp operated from late June until Labour day, and it has continued to thrive throughout the summer ever since, except during the war years between 1942 and 1944 when not enough staff were available. After the war, however, the camp continued to expand and new cabins, docks, dining hall extensions were all built over a 20 year period.
In 1968, the nearby Mohawk girls camp merged with RKY and the camp took the form that has remained to this day.

Darcy Munn, the current camp director, oversees a summer schedule that is fully taken up with 1 and 2 week camp sessions with about a 150 camper capacity. There is one week left open each summer, when the camp is rented out to a group from Ottawa that runs an LGBTQ camp. The camp is open year round for school and other groups to use for a variety of purposes. There is a March Break camp and programming on Professional Development Days at the Limestone School Board.

For Munn, the greatest strength of RKY camp lies in its traditions.
“All of our counsellors, camp directors, all of the people who run the activities are former campers. They know what the camp is all about. This is not a specialty camp or a designer camp, it is a summer camp in the same way it has been for 85 years,” he said.

Activities at RKY include swimming, canoe/kayaking, camp craft, arts and crafts, Adventure (wall climbing, ropes, etc.) nature and music. Campers participate in a variety of activities
Among the camp traditions that has developed recently is the cell phone policy. Campers don’t have access, and counsellors face severe restrictions.

“Some kids have a problem with that for a day or so, but they get over it. We want them to be immersed in camp life, and cell and computer games are not what RKY is all about,” he said.
RKY does, however, need to upgrade its facilities for modern times, to improve its standards and become more accessible.

The main camp building is called the Homestead Centre, named after Homestead Land Holdings, which is owned by one of the camp’s major benefactors, Brit Smith. It was constructed in the 1970’s with help from a grant from Wintario (a precursor to the Trillium Foundation) as well as donations from private individuals, including Smith.

The building is showing its age after 40 years, and it is time for a new dining hall/office complex/visitors centre to the camp. The kitchen needs an upgrade, the office space is cramped, and the dining hall is too small.
Already, from its ongoing fundraising efforts, the camp is putting in a brand new septic system, capable of managing a new, larger dining hall. The septic system is being installed near the RKY parking lot, and a location for the planned new building has been selected. The current building will remain as program space.

“The camp is not going to change. The capacity is meant to stay as is, but it will be better served with a fully accessible building like this. The time is right for RKY to do this,” said Munn.
That’s where the RKY board of Directors newest employee comes in. Daniel Shipp has been hired to oversee fundraising and take care of project management for the construction of the new building, which has an estimated cost of $2 million.

Shipp has only been working at RKY since the beginning of June, but he already has developed a sense of the camp\s place in the lives of the campers
“I am really taken with the feel of the camp,” he said. “It has its own unique history. The campers and counsellors and program directors all cherish the place. The staff who run it have been here for years and they love it too. To be able to help bring the right new facility in order to keep the camp going for another 40 or 50 years is a great challenge for me.”

The first thing that the RKY Board did when they decided to work on a new building was to contact Brit Smith, who is now 97 and still runs Homestead Land Holdings.
“He came on board right a way, and that had given us out start,” said Shipp.

Over the next few months the details of the project will be worked out and Shipp will be working with the board to prepare the ground for a capital fundraising campaign.
Shipp is optimistic that the goal can be met and the building project will take place as scheduled in the fall of 2018 for completion by the time the summer of 2019 rolls around.
For further information about RKY camp, go to rkycamp.org.