Camp Elkanah was logging camp before it was donated in 1956 to the Association of Baptist Church – for $10. In the deeded papers, it states that the camp must be used to improving youth spiritually and physically, or else the land should be returned back to the lumber company.
As a result, Camp Elkanah has been serving youth for decades on its lovely, pine-forested property near La Grande. Throughout the year Elkanah hosts summer campers, outdoor school and special group reservations, many of whom get to sleep in the camp’s one-of-a-kind cabins that sit on the boxcars of old trains, which are situated on the original tracks that once hauled lumber.
With funding from the Gray Family Foundation, Camp Elkanah updated the old train-wheel cabins with new floors, new roofs and metal-enforced exteriors that will protect from the elements.
“That’s going to hold up well,” says Joe Wing, the camp’s executive director.
The cabins also got fresh coats of paint and upgraded heating. In the next phase, they’ll update the lighting.
Elkanah also remodeled its staff cabins, including ones reserved for guest speakers, to make their rooms inviting homes-away-from-home.
For the nearly 1,000 fifth and sixth-graders that visit Camp Elkanah each year for Outdoor School, hailing from Umatilla, Hermiston, La Grande and Baker, the upgrades will make their experience all the more comfortable and memorable.
Joe adds that the Gray Family Foundation support transformed what would have been a five- to ten-year project into a two- to three-year project. “That extra boost from Gray can really make or break the project, and speed up the timeline,” he says.