Campers Get First Look at Becker Lodge Replacement
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Jordan Fouts-
More than 100 campers had their first look this week at the John Kline Center, built this year to replace Becker Lodge, which was lost to fire last July. The $3 million center, currently receiving finishing touches such as landscaping, siding and interior furniture and equipment, holds ample office space as well as kitchen and dining facilities.
It’s a big step up from the makeshift tent campers had to cook and eat in last year.
“There was a nice war whoop today when the dishwasher started,” Executive Director Rex Miller remarked Monday. “They’ve been washing dishes by hand for the past eight months.”
The center, named after a Church of the Brethren minister and Civil War doctor, is expected to be finished in two weeks. The Christian retreat will also hold a service July 11 to mark the anniversary of the Becker fire.
Three small groups of campers arrived Monday and were joined by 130 more Wednesday. The Monday groups included survival and archery classes, new programs this year, and a culinary class that cooked for them.
Breakfast and lunch went well, said culinary class director Karen Rowland, who joked that they didn’t set off any smoke alarms while making fried sweet potato chips.
The archery class, which got to take advantage of a new 100-acre range, also enjoyed sandwiches in the new facility Monday.
“Lots of sandwiches. You name a sandwich, it was made,” said Dwayne Runkle, a camp counselor for several years and head of the archery class. He added that the new center is “awesome ... with a director like Rex, what can you expect?”
Two of Runkle’s archery students, returning campers Alex McBride from Elkhart and Austin Weedon from Nappanee, were impressed with the new center. McBride added that he also enjoyed the tent last year.
“It was actually pretty fun, though I had a cast on so it wasn’t fun going off-road,” he said. “I didn’t expect what I saw in the new place, it was very surprising.”
The camp originally planned to remodel Becker, but will now build a new retreat center in its place. Miller noted that with all the memories tied up in the 80-year-old staff residence, “to create something new out of it would have meant a lot of disgruntled people.”
“There are a lot of memories still there, but the place where the memories took place is gone,” he added. “This whole thing has been a challenge that our church, our guests and our user groups ... have been very helpful to us as we worked to get things operational for summer.”[[In-content Ad]]
More than 100 campers had their first look this week at the John Kline Center, built this year to replace Becker Lodge, which was lost to fire last July. The $3 million center, currently receiving finishing touches such as landscaping, siding and interior furniture and equipment, holds ample office space as well as kitchen and dining facilities.
It’s a big step up from the makeshift tent campers had to cook and eat in last year.
“There was a nice war whoop today when the dishwasher started,” Executive Director Rex Miller remarked Monday. “They’ve been washing dishes by hand for the past eight months.”
The center, named after a Church of the Brethren minister and Civil War doctor, is expected to be finished in two weeks. The Christian retreat will also hold a service July 11 to mark the anniversary of the Becker fire.
Three small groups of campers arrived Monday and were joined by 130 more Wednesday. The Monday groups included survival and archery classes, new programs this year, and a culinary class that cooked for them.
Breakfast and lunch went well, said culinary class director Karen Rowland, who joked that they didn’t set off any smoke alarms while making fried sweet potato chips.
The archery class, which got to take advantage of a new 100-acre range, also enjoyed sandwiches in the new facility Monday.
“Lots of sandwiches. You name a sandwich, it was made,” said Dwayne Runkle, a camp counselor for several years and head of the archery class. He added that the new center is “awesome ... with a director like Rex, what can you expect?”
Two of Runkle’s archery students, returning campers Alex McBride from Elkhart and Austin Weedon from Nappanee, were impressed with the new center. McBride added that he also enjoyed the tent last year.
“It was actually pretty fun, though I had a cast on so it wasn’t fun going off-road,” he said. “I didn’t expect what I saw in the new place, it was very surprising.”
The camp originally planned to remodel Becker, but will now build a new retreat center in its place. Miller noted that with all the memories tied up in the 80-year-old staff residence, “to create something new out of it would have meant a lot of disgruntled people.”
“There are a lot of memories still there, but the place where the memories took place is gone,” he added. “This whole thing has been a challenge that our church, our guests and our user groups ... have been very helpful to us as we worked to get things operational for summer.”[[In-content Ad]]
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