Editor’s Note: David Marsh, now paroled, was a Staff Writer for S.Q. News and periodically submits articles for publication with his permission.
The shy ten-year-old boy takes several halting, tentative steps up the sidewalk leading to the closed door, his small hands tightly clutching two bags in one hand, a larger jar in the other. P.Nuttles! Delicious butter toffee peanuts! The currency of choice for successive generations of many YMCA summer-camp-bound youngsters.
The door opens, somehow the confused young lad stumbles through the sales pitch, and a sale is made! His eyes brimming with happiness, the boy bounds back down the sidewalk to his waiting Dad, his hand tightly clutching the money he has earned.
After excitedly counting the accumulating proceeds of his earnest efforts, he proudly heads off to the next door, his steps noticeably lighter, confidence in his abilities growing! Watching the boy, the father smiles, clearly savoring the moment.
This proud youngster is one of the lucky ones, said YMCA Camp Sequoia Lake Director Evan Gelsi. “The camp experience is intended to start long before the actual six days at the camp.”
The peanut sales, Gelsi explained, are part of the process that builds confidence and pride in the kids, happy in the knowledge that they have paid their own way on what, for so many children and teenagers throughout the Tulare, Kings and Fresno County area, has become a cherished annual rite of passage.
For over 700 kids throughout the three-county area, that tradition will continue on June 19 when the Golden State YMCA, operator of the five villages scattered around the shores of Lake Sequoia, opens for the first of its eight 2011 summer sessions. The sessions continue through July 29.
Sequoia Lake, a pine-forested 628 acre tract of land at the 5,500 ft. elevation, is located in the Sierras east of Fresno adjacent to the entrance to Kings Canyon National Park. The man-made lake was formed in 1890 with the damming of Mill Flat Creek and served for a number of years as a logging reservoir.
Valley YMCA’s, which have offered camping at the lake since 1912, purchased the tract from George and Anne Louise Hume, of Fresno, in 1922 for the sum of $30,000.
This year, according to Gelsi, 29, in his 10th year with the YMCA and 4th as the camp director, the camp will host an expected 2,200 campers from 13 countries around the world, including the 224 families who have signed up for family camp.
“Family camp,” according to Gelsi “is the fastest growing segment of our summer program.” Accommodations for family camp range from tent sites to apartments with multiple rooms and indoor bathrooms. Prices, based on a family of four, range from $888.00 to $2,200.00.
Y Camp offers an exciting slate of activities for campers of all ages, including fishing, swimming, kayaking, arts and crafts, hiking and an overnight campout, archery, boating, disc golf and theater, just to name a few.
“But perhaps most important,” says Gelsi, “are the friendships formed and the relationships renewed, and the memories that last a lifetime.”
Many of the children begin in the half-week-long PeeWee Camp program (2nd and 3rd grades) and return year after year through Youth Camp (3rd to 8th grades), then on into Teen Camp (9th to 12th grades). For the adventurous-on-wheels, the Y offers Skate Camp! Prices for the PeeWee, Youth and Teen Camps range from $350.00 – $500.00.
But core to the YMCA’s program is its annual camp scholarship program which this year raised over $120,000 through private and corporate donors. The scholarships are provided on an income-based, sliding scale that pays all but a small portion of the camp fee for families unable to afford the full price. Over 60 percent of the 700 kids from Tulare, Kings and Fresno Counties who will attend Camp Lake Sequoia this year will receive some sort of scholarship through the program.
In spite of the recession, according to Gelsi, the number of kids who attend the camp has remained steady, as have donations to the program.
Camp Lake Sequoia also offers a week-long session for diabetics, as well as Heroes Camp, which kids of military families attend free. The Heroes Camp program is sponsored by the Sierra Club and the Armed Services YMCA.
Gelsi laments the steady decline in the number of families who participate in the peanut sales.
“The biggest factor,” he said, “is it creates an ownership factor in the camp experience. The kids earn self-confidence and come to camp with a sense of self-accomplishment.”
Peanut sales, so essential to the camping experience and the fond memories of past generations, once reached a participation level of over 60 percent of camp-bound youngsters, are now down to around 10 percent, said Gelsi.