Owasippe Scout Reservation is preparing for the opening of another great summer in the Chicago Area Council. It has been 94 years since Owasippe first opened its sites to Scouts from the Chicago area. Owasippe consists of approximately 4,800 acres of woodland ideally suited for a summer camp environment. The original property for Owasippe, America’s first Scout camp, was donated to the Chicago Boy Scouts by the city of Whitehall, Michigan.

Owasippe was founded as a "wilderness experience." It was originally a full day’s sail on a steamship, across Lake Michigan, to enter its gateway. Later, it became a day’s train journey from Chicago to a small rail stop in West Michigan. Even now, with Interstate highway travel, it is a four-hour trip. Sadly, it is too far away for the Chicago Area Council troops to spend a weekend and support the costs of the huge land investment.

Almost 100 years after Whitehall’s invitation to Chicago Boy Scouts to build their summer camp just out of town, there is a deeply seated local desire to keep Scouts coming to the community. Township officials, mayors, county commissioners, state representatives, and the area media all support what the vast majority of the residents have clearly stated—Owasippe is a treasure that should not be turned over by the Boy Scouts of America to the highest-bidding land developer.

Owasippe has played a central role in Scouting since its founding, including having a number of Scouting’s early leaders such as Daniel Carter Beard and E. Urner Goodman as Camp Directors. This year, three of Owasippe’s section camps will be open: Camp Blackhawk, Camp Wolverine, and Reneker Family Camp.

It was not clear that this year’s summer camp would actually happen. It has been just over a year since the Chicago Area Council announced the desire to sell this gem of Scout Camping, and much has happened since then. Ironically, it was September 11, 2002, when Joe Sener, Camping Committee Chair and long-time Owasippe camper and "staff man" (as the staffers are called), was informed of the council’s decision. In immediate disagreement, Sener decided that there were other ways to address the financial realities of such a large camp.

During the previous summer Sener and Owasippe Committee co-chair Chauncey Niziol had spent time meeting with the local business leaders in West Michigan to determine their willingness to support Owasippe if the right offers were made and the right programs were developed with the local community in mind. Sener and a group of other Scouters quickly formed Save Owasippe Scout Reservation (SOSR) and mobilized the other volunteers of the council and the Owasippe Staff Association to express their displeasure at the council’s decision, and to delay any quick disposition without their input. The volunteers quickly determined that they could put together an offer to buy the camp themselves. This mobilization generated a large number of small donations from friends of Owasippe and some people they had never met. These donations now number many tens of thousands of dollars.

"Our initial premise was that if Owasippe were more fully utilized—more than six weeks a year—we could actually make it into a viable business and make it self-sustaining," Sener said. After meeting with a number of business people and politicians in West Michigan, Owasippe’s community, it became evident that the business opportunities were real.

Next the SOSR team formed a not-for-profit corporation called the Owasippe Outdoor Education Center (OOEC). This corporation was formed to act as either operator or owner/operator of Owasippe as an outdoor education center for the youth of America. This includes the continued operation of Owasippe as a Boy Scout Camp as well as additional activities and benefits to guarantee the conservation and use of the property as an "outdoor university."

One of the opportunities identified was the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, which provides public money for the purchase of property for conservation and recreational purposes. With the help of the politicians in West Michigan, this fund may be able to provide for the purchase of Owasippe by the local township.

The latest development is that the OOEC, empowered by the donations of their many friends, new and old, has opened an office in Muskegon, Michigan as a headquarters for their efforts and has hired a Development Director to help make the difference and tip the scales.

Sener said, "If I were to dream of the ideal person to be charged with the financial future of the Owasippe Outdoor Education Center, Gordon Zion would be too good to dream about. He is a man who worked at Owasippe as a Camp Director, has been a professional with the Chicago Area Council Boy Scouts, and has a long list of successes in community fund-raising across the United States."

The OOEC believe the use of a professional fundraiser, coupled with the support of the business and political communities of West Michigan, will make the difference between the dream of saving Owasippe—or any Boy Scout Camp—and the reality of turning Scout camping into a financially viable opportunity for all our youth.