Camp Medley celebrates construction start for new main hall
by Ana Watts
Accompanied by congas and bongos, campers and guests sang and whooped a Victory Chant as sod was turned to begin construction of a 6,200 square foot main hall at Camp Medley. Bishop Claude Miller, capital campaign chair Peter Irish, Camp Medley board chair Bev Harrison and two senior-teen campers ceremonially began to dig the foundation of the new building that will replace the camp’s ageing dining hall and kitchen facilities as well as its famous ‘rustic’ washrooms and showers.
Before the official sod-turning took place, camp counsellors stretched red cords diagonally across the staked-off area of the new building forming a cross for the Greek letter chi, a symbol both of the cross and the name of Christ. They then outlined the perimeter of the new building.
This state-of the art facility will be ready for use in the 2007 camping season and is phase two of a complete restoration project for the popular 60-year-old camp on the St. John River in Upper Gagetown. In 2004, double cabins designed in the Australian outback replaced the
camp’s tired old log cabins. Each new cabin section has 16 bunks, 16 storage compartments, and strategically placed windows and screens that keep the cabins cool inside even on the hottest days. The new building features the same roomy and well-ventilated design.
The Anglican Diocese of Fredericton owns and operates two summer youth camps, Medley in the lower St. John River Valley and Brookwood in Bristol, which is near Florenceville in the upper valley. A $1.5 million capital campaign to upgrade both camps is approaching the halfway mark.
Jen Fry of the Parish of Nerepis and St. John and Zane McCaig of the Parish of Sussex, two senior teen campers at Medley, assisted in the sod-turning ceremony.
