YMCA Camp Greenville is located right on the border of North and South Carolina near Brevard, North Carolina. Currently in its 102nd year of camping, Camp Greenville has quite the history. In 1925 Camp Greenville moved to its current site. Camp Greenville sits on 1,400 acres, making it the 5th largest YMCA camp in the country. Originally, Camp Greenville was an all boys camp while the YWCA operated camp Burgess Glen, until the late 1970s. In 1980 the Camp Greenville became coed. Today, Camp Greenville offers one-week sessions to approximately 200 boys and girls per week. The Camp Director, Rick Burris, recently showed me around the camp.
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| Inside The Lodge |
The most tangible pieces of Camp Greenville history are located in the Thomas F. Parker Lodge, originally built by John M. "Uncle Johnny" Holmes in the late 1920s. At the time Uncle Johnny was a member of the Rotary Club and sent letters to Rotary members asking for artifacts from around the world. The amount of history in that building was much more that I could take in during my short visit! Rick pointed out a few of his favorites, including a letter from Gandhi.
As I was walking up the hill towards the seemingly spontaneous dance party that was happening in the airnasium for class change, I spoke had a chance to talk with a returning camper. When I asked him what the coolest thing at camp was, he said the “Monk Secret” of course. Clearly, I needed an explanation. Becoming a Monk Old Timer is an honor for 5th year campers. The campers explained to me that you can’t really know the secret unless you are a Monk. The tradition got its name from Monk Mulligan, the camp director from 1944-1967. Part of the tradition is a special camp shirt, like the ones below -- the meaning is only known to fellow Monk’s Old Timers.
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| Photo credit: YMCA Camp Greenville |
As I was headed back to the main office, the campers were enjoying the beautiful day swimming at the lake. As I took in the magic of camp, I saw the signs across the lake reading "Be a Great Boy / Be a Great Girl” and I asked if that was the camp motto. Rick said yes, and told me the story behind the saying. The story goes like this. When Teddy Roosevelt was asked how to be a great man, he replied with, "First you must be a Great Boy." From there the tradition was born and continues today. As I was leaving I even heard the song:
"Be a Great Boy
Be a Great Girl
Be a child of the Lord; it’s the greatest thing in the World
Do you know the Monk?
Do you know the man?
Do you know the power of God is right there in your hands?
In your hands…"
The spirit of camping at Camp Greenville is alive! On my way out of Camp, I had one last stop. Pretty Place Chapel. Campers use this place for special chapel services throughout the week. The views were stunning. As I sat on the first row I was thinking about how important this place is to Camp Greenville. With over 100 years of camping, I wondered how many campers have sat in this chapel. It's amazing how one place can have such an impact on a young person’s life.
-The Girl With the Red Umbrella
Nice article. I just learned a few things that I did not know about Camp Greenville! How awesome to have a note from Gandhi! My husband and three children are members of the Adventure Guides. They have been involved with the Group for many years now and absolutely love it...currently looking forward to the Spring Camp Out! TP
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to Camp Burgess Glen I loved going there I went in 1988 for a week I remember my dad saying i cried because I didn't want to go and I cried because I didn't want to come home it was so much fun...I wish my daughter could experience what I did but things are so different now...does anyone know when it closed why it closed and the actual address
ReplyDeleteBurgiss Glen closed in the late 1980s I believe. I have talked with women who went there at that time. I went there in the 1960s and my aunts in the 1940s and 1950s. The camp was opened in 1925 by the Greenville, SC YWCA. The camp was bought after its closing by a private person and has fallen into disrepair according to those who have seen it in recent years. No idea who owns it at the present time.
DeleteHow unfortunate. I attended camp at BG several times and loved it. The campers walked over to Camp Greenville during the week and it was always obviously much "nicer" but BG had real soul qualities.
DeleteI went to BG in the late 70s!! I miss it so much. Some my best memories were from there. Such as canoeing, arts and crafts and the showers with no "real" floors�� Fun times
DeleteI was at BG as a camper in the 60s and a counselor into the early 70s. The camp is now owned by the Epps family from Greenville, SC. I help organize a bi-annual reunion of some of the staff from that time period. The first year we stayed near BG, toured it one day with the permission of the Epps. They are only keeping up a few of the bigger/newer cabins, and Rhoda Den, for their family to use. The trails were pretty overgrown but we were able to get down to Walker's Creek and visit the lake.
ReplyDeleteI worked at BG as a Jr. counselor and then counselor in the mid 70"s. My grandmother and great aunt were on the original staff and I grew up loving BG before I ever went there. I loved the primitive feel, all of the activities, and the lake-even though I got stung a BUNCH of times going to the boat house :). I have so many fond memories of BG. I still find myself singing some of the camp songs sung at top volume after meals :)
Deleteahhhhh….singing the songs after dinner is my fondest memory. At that time I didn’t know I couldn’t sing. I would stay for 4 weeks, my sister always opted for 2 weeks. She was such a baby!!
DeleteBickety Burgess Glickety Glen alumni circa 1964-1969…?
I went to BG in the early 80's. I have wondered for years what happen to the camp. This is the first time I have ever found any info. I was starting the think I dreamed those few summers. I am a 5K asst. teacher and have tought kids our camp songs. 3 have stuck with me all these years. see if anyone knows these?.....GREY SQUIRREL...JUST A BOY AND A GIRL IN A LITTLE CANOE...and my ALL time favorite..FLEA,FLEA FLY,FLEA FLY FLO.........who out there remembers these. Im still spreading them around.
ReplyDeleteFavorite counselor...Wendy.. I dont know her last name but she was the best leader and singer to FLEA FLY
DeleteI remember some of the second song. Had forgotten all about it.
DeleteI still sing two songs I learned at BG in the 1960s. I was singing my favorite to some colleagues last week, and I thought “I may be the only one who remembers!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite went like this: if we can grow as simply, as common blades of grass, both tall and straight as trees grow to the sky. . . Then we can learn to know, to know and understand, our selves and others, what we do and why! We the younger generation, are striving to build a better world! Peace and unity, freedom and brotherhood, these, we have said to be our goals!
Still good goals today!
The other song was a silly one
DeleteBickety burgess glickety glen is mickety mighty fickety fine and wicketedy we are glicketedy glad we’re here! . . .
I remember it! What was the name of it?
DeleteI remember the songs with all my heart!! BG was a wonderful place for me during a crazy time growing up! I loved all the cabins, Hemlock, Laurel, Galax and Wake Robin. RhondaDenrom and Lanyap. ( forgive my spelling). A great getaway as a child in the early 80s. Miss the tetherball!!
ReplyDeleteI was in Hemlock. Top bunk by the window.
DeleteFOND MEMORIES from the early 70's! We would cry so hard on the last night sitting by the fire singing Leaving on a Jet Plane. I remember some of the counselors...Skipper, Paulette and somebody with a the last name Devlin. Marty was the leader. I still carry a scar on the top of my toe that I cut while walking to those outdoor shower stalls! I made some great friends there from Kissimmee, Miami, SC and TN. I will NEVER forget sleeping outside the cabin in our sleeping bags all night as punishment for pushing a girl off the top bunk!
ReplyDeleteWe were lucky enough to go to BG in the 70s - trails,showers, tetherball, best fried chicken I ever had- I remember a muddy slide you would go down - hemlock, arbutus, stayed in most of them - worked in the kitchen one year cause my mom had to work and couldn't come and get us- my sister and I had a cabin to ourselves- made lanyards and pot holders - we were lucky❤️
ReplyDeleteI went there in the late 60"s for several years. I loved it so much! My sister and I were wondering what was the name of the building where we had plays and activities? Also did the trail to the lake have a name?
DeleteEBR (Elizabeth Bell Rickets) was the program building. I think Christmas tree trail was the path to the lake
DeleteI went there for two summers in the late 70's. I still have wonderful memories of Arbutus and Laurel cabins, sliding down the cascades behind the cabins, perfect place, songs after every meal(still remember many of them), and the many walks to the camp store.
ReplyDeleteI just named my personal mountain cabin Wake Robin in honor of BG… and all of you! Long Live BG! Long live the Salamanders in the lake! <3 xo they are the best memories of my life and made me the person I am and the artist that I am to this day!
ReplyDeleteCamp BG is mighty fine, and we are glad we're here...
ReplyDelete2 X camper from the 80's. Looking for memories and a little history. E. Stanton
A camper here from the 1940’s!
ReplyDeleteI want to share an experience..
Last night I attended the Martin Luther King service at my synagogue. We were joined by the pastor and many congregants and choir members from the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. At one point in the service we sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing”. I’ve heard snippets of this song over the years, but last night was the first time since my days at BG that I could sing it all the way through!
I was touched in a way I’d never felt before..How did a handful of Jewish girls end up at BG? And it wasn’t just that year. My 6 year older sister attended before me. But more importantly, how was I lucky enough to find a place in the segregated world of that day where we sat around the table after lunch and sang the Negro National Anthem! What a wonderful lesson it taught us.
I absolutely loved BG. It was a wonderful camp. There were several of us who are Jewish and from Miami, FL who went there in the mid 60s. I have such wonderful memories of that camp. All of the singing, the trails, picking huckleberries and taking them to Annie, one of the fabulous cooks, to make a pie, sneaking out at night with our counselors to walk to the little town of Cedar Mountain, the trail to the lake, making lanyards, going to Camp Greenville (my father went there as a child) for dances. So many memories. Once in the mid 80s my husband and I drove up to NC from Alabama to Little Switzerland and on the way we went up to Cedar Mountain to see if the camp was still there. It had just been sold. I was so sad I wasn’t able to see it again.
DeleteI was just thinking about the camp and googled it. I can’t believe it’s still in existence. I am 70 and I was there as a child. I still remember the song. I loved it there!!! Wonderful memories. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
ReplyDeleteBurgess Glen was my Field of Dreams - I would dream about going along the trail, to & from the lake, 5 times a day, some days. I dream about Rhoda Den & the amazing meals Annie & her crew would create. Her Sunday Rolls! HEAVENLY! Mac & cheese - yummy. Fried
ReplyDeleteI was a camper from the late sixties to early seventies… I remember rhodaden, our dining place… the different cabins took turns doing community duties. The best one was crushing cans!!!
ReplyDeleteWe got to have a dance with camp Greenville every two weeks. We went square dancing at Robin Hood‘s barn in Brevard. Going to the Pisgah national forest and sliding down sliding rock so many great memories. .
Best days of my life at Camp Burgess Glen. I remember one of the songs well… the water hikes… canoeing… the mountainside chapel. “I’ve got a song let me sing it for you, let me sing it now while the meaning is true, put it all together and see what it sounds like together… don’t be afraid to sing with your mind… sing about the joy that I know I will find… put it all together and see what it sounds like together… song is love… song is love… song love love love… song is love!” I think the last year I attended was 1979/1980.
ReplyDeletePS. And I remember mixers with the boys camp in Greenville… first kiss there… lol (1979/1980)
ReplyDeleteI love reading your Burgess Glen memories! I attended with LowCountry SC pals in the early early fifties. Wonderful memories and also sweet thoughts around the dances and a would-be “boyfriend.” The Bickety Burgess Glickety Glen song will be ringing through my head, in its entirety, for at least the rest of the week. Thank you for all the Burgess Glen news. I’ve long wondered!
ReplyDeleteNothing but smiles reading this. Looking for information on the camp after Hurricane Helene. Woke up singing Bickety Burgess... In the middle of the night. Early 80s attendee here. Yes, tetherball!
ReplyDelete