Growing up, I didn’t participate in many organized summer activities. In elementary school, my farming mom once dropped my brother and me off at a one-week camp in the Oregon woods. I remember the name of my councilor, Strawberry; a scary game in which we chased each other around in the dark; and feeling very, very homesick.

By middle school, we’d moved to southern Maine. Our North Berwick church held an annual youth camp right on the church grounds. During the day we played baseball and swam in a nearby pond. And every night Brother Robins, an area youth minister, took the stage of the wood paneled sanctuary with his acoustic guitar.

I’ll never forget the earnest tenor of his voice as he sang, “Only one life, so soon it will pass. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” Such songs convinced my 12-year-old heart that I wanted to make Christ the center of my life. Few experiences, including going to college and living overseas, have had a greater influence on my life.

The commitment I made, kneeling at the altar those dark summer evenings when Brother Robins invited us to pray, eventually led me to adopt our daughter, Ruth, from an orphanage in Uganda – despite being told that she would never walk or talk and was likely profoundly retarded.

Yes, I fell completely in love with her. Yes, I was scared. But my desire to follow Christ’s call to love those who are often treated as unworthy of love was greater than my desire to love only myself. Thankfully, my husband, Dana, felt the same way. Was it because he grew up spending every summer at a similar camp run by his dad?

Either way, attending summer camp can profoundly impact the direction of a young person’s life. Selecting the right one can be hard, particularly for working class families. That’s why I am so grateful that, fifty years ago this summer, a dogged couple from Vermont, Jean and Peter Willard, along with friends, Frank and Laura Hayward, had the faith and tenacity to buy and develop a 50-acre camp right here on the east bank of the Kennebec River in Woolwich.

Chop Point Camp offers youth from Mid-coast Maine and around the world a chance to enjoy the outdoors, have fun, and consider Christ’s teachings in an accepting and encouraging atmosphere.

Thanks to two five-day Community Week programs for Maine kids, ages 12 to 18, three of my children have had an opportunity to attend camp. Others, from Spain, France and across the state and country, participate in two three-week sessions that still offer one of the more affordable camp experiences around.

But most of all, I appreciate the faith, love and generosity that Chop Point’s founders have demonstrated to the hundreds of kids who they, their families, and the camp’s college-age councilors welcome each summer. Who can count the many lives they have touched or how far that love will reach?

Theirs is a golden anniversary truly worth celebrating.

MEADOW RUE MERRILL is a Mid-coast Maine writer who shares about God in her everyday life through “Faith Notes.” For more, go to www.meadowrue.com where you can follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

CHOP POINT SUMMER CAMP

• (207) 443-5860
• choppointcamp.com