New Life Youth Camp turns 20; celebration planned Sunday

Dyersburg Dyer County Union Mission Director of Development Jim Ewell, New Life Camp Director Greg Beam, Mission and Camp volunteer Donna Ewell and Mr. Wiggles stand ready to welcome visitors at the door of New Life Youth Camp's new retreat center. A dedication of the retreat center and celebration of 20 years of New Life Youth Camp will be held at 2 p.m., on Sunday, Oct. 18, at the Chapel overlooking the camp pond. The ceremony will be over by 3 p.m., but community members, past and present camp volunteers and alumni of the camp are invited to stay as long as they wish to reminisce, tour the camp and fellowship with old friends.

New Life Youth Camp began as an experiment of the Dyersburg-Dyer County Union Mission 20 summers ago.

In 1990, Mission volunteers Jim and Donna Ewell of Halls offered their farm as a place to provide children who wouldn't normally have the chance to go to camp with a fun outdoor experience. Those two weeks of day camp resulted in a full-time ministry that today draws residents from all over the country to volunteer or book the camp's new 5,000-square-foot retreat center.

This Sunday, Oct. 18, area residents, New Life Youth Camp alumni, past and present volunteers, Mission officials, friends and members of the many churches, youth groups, Boy Scout troops and civic organizations that have contributed to New Life Youth Camp are invited to a dedication of the retreat center and celebration of two decades of changing the lives of local children.

The event will take place at 2 p.m. at the chapel overlooking the pond, with a planned dedication of the new retreat center and a celebration of what God has done with New Life Youth Camp over the past 20 years. The ceremonies will be over by 3 p.m., but residents are invited to stay for camp-style snacks, tours, memories, photos and conversation for as long as they wish.

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New Life Youth Camp has grown steadily over the past two decades. Area churches, youth groups, civic organizations, businesses, scout troops and community members have donated labor and projects to enhance the camp experience. Each year, campers and volunteers anxiously ponder what new features they will find at camp.

The largest addition has been the camp's new retreat center, a building that provides a place to house camp volunteers from other states and retreats for Mission Youth Club programs and organizations throughout the area.

"What has been behind our slow, steady growth has been a broad-based support from the community," said Mission Director of Development Jim Ewell. "The camp evolved slowly. Like the frog in the kettle, until one day we looked up and said, 'Wow! We've got a camp!'"

"We are using the whole farm now," said Donna Ewell.

"I remember when I first came here, I thought, 'This isn't a camp. It's a farm,'" said New Life Youth Camp Director Greg Beam. "Now, I really feel like there isn't a time when it doesn't look like a camp."

Most volunteers donate time with the idea that they will be providing a blessing to children at the camp and end up reporting that they instead received the blessings themselves. The camp has many regular volunteers, but camp organizers have been surprised at how easily such a diverse and ever-changing group of volunteers fit into the puzzle of camp life each year.

"I have been awed by the synergy of camp," said Donna Ewell. "How people bring whatever gifts they have to camp - from the ladies who bake the cookies to the people who volunteer during the week - they all bring who they are. We don't try to teach bears to quack. Everybody does their own thing and it all works."

"It's really been a phenomenon," said Beam. "Such a huge project that goes on behind the scenes."

"We set out trying to make a difference one child at a time, based on relationships," said Jim Ewell. "We are looking for better ways to have a relationship with each child. I think this building provides one of the best opportunities we've been able to give to get them out of their environment for a few days."

"Since its beginning in 1961, the Mission has been on the cutting edge of making special efforts to rally the community to help meet the needs around us," said Mission executive director Jim Edmundson in a State Gazette article on the groundbreaking of the Retreat Center. "This growth at our New Life Youth Camp in the form of a retreat center will help us minister to more kids and be much more effective in that ministry. We believe in investing in others and that's what we're doing with this expansion."

"Compare working with (the students) two hours a week to 24 or 48 hours (at a retreat)," said Beam. "It's a huge difference."

The retreat center has been used for several MYC programs and for students at nearby Ripley High School. Camp organizers feel they have just scratched the surface of the functions of the building and will share their dreams for the camp with friends and community members who join them for the dedication and celebration this Sunday.

"We are still as excited about this camp 20 years later," said Donna Ewell.

"I think more," agreed Jim Ewell. "It's a different excitement."

"It's a part of our life," said Donna Ewell. "It is our life."

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The dedication of the retreat center and a celebration of 20 years of New Life Youth Camp will take place at 2 p.m., on Sunday, Oct. 18, at the chapel overlooking the pond. The community is invited and encouraged to attend.

On Saturday, Oct. 17, the Mission will hold its 19th annual Mission March, a fundraiser to benefit New Life Youth Camp and MYC programs. The event will offer more than 280 trophies and plaques and door prizes from nearly 150 West Tennessee businesses. Registration and packet pickup begin at 7:30 a.m., on the Dyersburg Court Square.