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Covenant Pines Bible Camp Honors Founders
MCGREGOR, MN (May 30, 2005) - Covenant Pines Bible Camp recently honored its
founders - the first board members - as part of its fiftieth anniversary
celebration.
More than 200 people attended the event - one of a number of anniversary
events scheduled this year – held at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis on
May 1. In addition to members of the camp's founding board and some of
their children (see photo), every camp manager going back to 1958 was
honored.
In early December 1953, a group of pastors from the Twin Cities met to
discuss purchasing land for a Bible camp. A committee including both
pastors and lay people was formed to search for a site. After more than
a year of visiting different locations, they discovered Frontier Camp
near McGregor, MN. The committee met on October 1, 1954, and voted 25-4
to purchase the site for 22,000.
"That was really a steal," says Bruce Peterson, the camp's current
executive director. The chapel built three years later cost $27,000.
The founders and others invested sweat equity as well as money into the
camp. During the first summer, Peterson noted, a group of men spent
seventeen Saturdays working on the camp. One person left staff to manage
his business for the summer, so that he could work at the camp.
The first summer of operation was 1955. There were three weeks of camps:
junior high boys, junior high girls and a coed senior high camp. The
camp welcomed 285 attendees that year and had an operating expense of
$6,483.07.
Covenant Pines has grown to 11 weeks of camp and 1,800 people per
summer, with an operating budget of $900,000. Throughout the year, the
camp serves 7,500 people.
Among those in the founder's group who attended the recent celebration
were Linda Franzen (daughter of Vern Franzen), Maxine Schermer, Tim
Schermer, (wife and son of the late George Schermer), Carl Elving, Bill
Goolsbee, Dave Swanson, Paul Norquist, Jim Gronvall, Earl Johnson, Jim
Fretheim (son of the late Art Fretheim), and Arlene Gronvall (wife of
the late Bob Gronvall). Other recognized during the dinner included
Virginia Vining (wife of the late Curt Vining) Ray Dahlberg, Luverne
Sands, Carl Janson, and Orville Bjorklund.
Peterson said the recent dinner was special. "For me it was really
exciting to see people who were connected with camping fifty years ago,"
he says. "These people really had some foresight in finding the site and
investing their sweat and blood into the camp."
Also at the dinner, an archives and history committee put together a
display of memorabilia and other pertinent history of the camp.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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