Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 23, 1993 TAG: 9309230315
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: W-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The help-wanted sign is up.
Carpenters, electricians, plumbers. Men, women. Young, old. People with materials and money to give.
The call is out . . . Roanoke County has the opportunity.
And Ricky Showalter hopes the name "Camp Roanoke" will stir emotions among many people in the Roanoke Valley.
To help jog some memories, Camp Roanoke was operated by the Central YMCA in the western area of Roanoke County as a summer hide-a-way for boys and men.
It has been closed and abandoned for some years.
Now it is slowly stirring back to a new life.
And Ricky Showalter, the man who is pumping life into the camp, hopes that revival will get a big boost in October.
On Oct. 20 at 7 p.m., Showalter will conduct a meeting at the Glenvar Library to line up people interested in helping bring Camp Roanoke back to full bloom.
Showalter is program coordinator for the Roanoke County Department of Parks and Recreation and is project manager for the renovation.
The 110-acre camp, nestled in the low reaches of Poor Mountain, is off Dry Hollow Road and adjacent to the Spring Hollow Reservoir property.
Resurrection of the camp is one of Showalter's current enthusiasms.
At the Oct. 20 meeting, he plans to form a citizens advisory committee and several subcommittees to help guide the project to reality.
"What we need are volunteers and donations of materials and money," he said.
Some work already has been done by volunteers, including Boy Scouts who have used the work to advance their merit badge ratings, Showalter said.
One in particular - Jason Arrington - took a big step toward meeting the requirements for Eagle Scout by being the team leader on renovation of one of the cabins on the camp property.
To earn Eagle rank, a Scout must undertake a service project. Arrington chose the cabin renovation. He organized a work crew made up of his fellow scouts and friends, solicited donation of materials and directed the crew in the renovation work, Showalter said.
Arrington, who will be 16 in November, is a member of Troop 349, sponsored by the Third Ward congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salem. He is a 10th-grader at Northside High School.
Much volunteer work also, was done by scouts from Troop 38 sponsored by the Rockingham Court United Methodist Church in the Garden City area of Roanoke.
"They have been real excited about this project," Showalter said.
Members of Troop 38 repaired a fireplace and replaced the roofing on the camp's lodge building and did a tremendous amount of general cleanup, he said.
Holley Mutter, scoutmaster of Troop 38, spent weekends camping at the site, clearing the grounds of trash and undergrowth and cleaning inside buildings.
The 25 boys in his troop, Mutter said, were pioneers in that they were a general cleanup crew before any renovation work began.
"We were glad to help," he said. "I'm glad the camp is going to reopen. It's a beautiful area."
Several businesses in the Roanoke Valley have donated material and money toward the renovation, and Showalter said he hopes others will join the project.
His aim is to get the camp back into full operation so it can be used not only for parks and recreation programs, but also by the general public, church groups, businesses and other groups throughout the Roanoke Valley.
A step toward a new life will come next summer when the site will open for day-camp groups, Showalter said.
When once again in full operation, he said, it will have overnight accommodations and dining room facilities for about 75 to 100 people.
Facilities will include eight cabins, a kitchen/dining-room, a lodge for meetings, a picnic pavilion, rest rooms and an office building.
Dry Hollow Creek runs through the camp property, crossed by a foot bridge. Camp facilities are on both side of the creek.
There is an open field for recreational sports and a fire ring for programs held around a campfire.
Showalter said the camp has a swimming pool and tennis courts, but they need extensive repairs. A new swimming pool may be necessary, he said, but that would cost about $75,000.
The camp needs about $20,000 worth of plumbing work, Showalter said, and undetermined amounts of electrical work, roofing and general carpentry.
How to cover the cost is something the committee formed at the October meeting will work out, Showalter hopes.
"It will be expensive, but no more so than some of the ball fields we have," he said.
And the camp would appeal to a wider segment of the population than a ball field, he noted.
Showalter said that so far in the renovation work, only about $4,000 in county money has been used. All of that has come from fees paid by users of other parks and recreation programs.
He could not estimate what the entire project might cost or where the money will come from.
by CNB