By Kent Collard

2016 marks 86 years of Camp Trinity on the Bar 717 Ranch.  That’s a long time!

During most of those eight-plus decades, we’ve been building, adding-on-to, and for some time now, remodeling the structures we use for camp.  The goal has always been to build what we need to make camp a better place for kids.

Staying true to our Homesteading tradition, much of camp has been built with the many hands of campers and staff.  Maybe there was advice or assistance from a carpenter here and there, but otherwise construction on the ranch has always been a ‘learning while doing’ enterprise.  Nothing beats learning while doing for developing self-confidence and achieving a sense of accomplishment.  However, the methods and materials of construction have changed greatly from the fir poles and split shakes of yesteryear, and the time has come to replace some aging original buildings.

After more then sixty years of use, next September in the fall of 2017, we will begin the grand project to dismantle and then reconstruct the main camp kitchen and Eating Platform.  Together these buildings really are the heart and hearth of camp. This is the place we gather thrice daily for meals, and also where tens of thousands of camper have belted out their appeal to “get Charlie off the MTA” around an evening campfire.  How many marshmallows have been toasted to perfection in that big rock fireplace?  Surely, far too many to count, but our every intention is that the new structure will be just as great a place as the old to eat, sing, and toast a marshmallow.

The existing kitchen grew over the years, a compilation of extensions, wings, and saddlebagged structures.  A good portion of the current space has been re-purposed, evolving from Grover and Erma’s old kitchen/living room into a combo salad bar prep room and freezer storage.  None of it is large enough for what we do.  It’s truly a wonder it has functioned as well as it has, for as long as it has.  In 2000, to honor Marlys’ Smith’s forty years of service as our Food Service Director, we christened the building ‘Marlys’ Kitchen”.

Despite the challenges it presents, we love the kitchen and Eating Platform just the way they are.  We do!  From little details like the signs over the serving windows, to the great big amazing Oak trees that soar overhead, we love the intimate scale of the old building, and how the close quarters of the Eating Platform makes every meal feel like we’re one big family eating together.

If we could keep what we have and make it work for another eighty years, we would.  After much thought, plenty of pondering, and a good deal of careful consideration, we concluded that yet another remodel would not fully address the deficiencies of the existing structure.   Fortunately, with the new building, we can recreate the great, and also fix the flaws.

Of all the buildings we have on the Ranch, the kitchen is the most important for the daily functioning of camp life.  It’s also the most complex, from the standpoint of utilities, equipment, and supporting infrastructure.  It’s the one building we cannot do without.   When you start with size, add complexity, and top it off with importance and you get a project outside the scope of our do-it-yourself construction tradition.  We’ll need help with this one, and fortunately I believe we have it.

Beginning with the planning and fundraising support of the Bar 717 Ranch Advisory Board, the project is off to a great start.  Thanks also to the insight and expertise of our Architect (and camp Alum), Jack Freeman, the new building captures the best of the old, while solving the problems of the previous site and structure.

In the long tradition we share of building camp together, I hope you will join us in this huge undertaking.  There are always many ways to participate in camp, from joining us for a volunteer work weekend or Family Camp, to supporting the Campership Fund or kitchen reconstruction with a donation.

Over the next two years, I look forward to sharing with you the progress  we make towards building a kitchen that embodies our goal of making camp a better place for kids.