History

It was announced Sunday, July 15, 1951 that five Indianapolis Settlement Agencies formed a separate corporation, Settlements Camping, Inc., to build and operate a permanent camp near Nashville in Brown County Indiana, for the benefit, use, enjoyment and social welfare of their members and members of such other similar organizations as may be included from time to time.

To help Settlements Camping, Inc., get started, a grant of $108,000 was made by Lilly Endowment, Inc., following approval of the Group Work and Recreation Division of the Health and Welfare Council of Indianapolis and Marion County and the Council’s executive director, Ralph Pumphery.

This generous grant has made possible the purchase of the beautiful Von Kessler estate of some 700 acres in Brown County, where it is proposed to build a modern camp which will eventually have an enrollment of over 1,000 boys and girls of school age during the summer season and additional numbers on weekends and at other times throughout the year.

The five agencies participating in the unique approach to camping are: Communal Center Association, Mayer Neighborhood House, Southwest Social Center, Hawthorne Social Service Association, and Fletcher Place Community Center. All but the last named are member agencies of the Indianapolis Community Chest, and all five belong to the Indianapolis Federation of Settlements, which initiated the project. The agencies are located in south and west Indianapolis, an area where facilities for outdoor activities are inadequate or nonexistent. Each of the agencies will continue to provide a program geared to neighborhood needs so that camping will become an extension of year-round service to members.

The new camp will offer children and their parents an experience in democratic living; an opportunity to learn more about the natural laws of the universe; a chance for the child to enjoy adventure with safety; an opportunity to develop new interests and skills; an experience away from home; healthful, joyous living out of doors; counseling and guidance by a staff well qualified to give it; an interfaith, interracial experience; and, last but not least, an opportunity to develop values applicable to all living.

In order to insure the highest standard in every phase of camping, the new camp agency has secured the services of such outstanding experts as Reynold Carlson, associate professor of Recreation of Indiana University and past president of the American Camp Association; Dr. Sharpe, of National Life Camps, New York; Nelson Dangremonde and Denzil Doggett, of the Indiana State Conservation Department; Quentin Noblett, of Columbus; Galvin Walker, track coach of Butler University; Ralph Pumphery, executive director of the Health and Welfare Council; and George L. Denny, Indianapolis. With the help of this group and a nationally-known camp architect, it is hoped that an early start can be made on building a 20 acre lake on the site and constructing other improvements to some of the existing buildings that will house the first pilot camp by mid 1952.

Officers:

S.J. Sternberger, President; E.H Janke, Vice President; Hugh W. Frey, Treasurer; Wm. M. Lynch, Secretary.

Directors:

• Communal Center – S.J. Sternberger, Lewis Lurie and Wm. M. Lynch.
• Fletcher Place – Mrs. Robert Allen, Greg Ransburg and John Siner.
• Hawthorne House – A. K. Jones, Roscoe Conkle and Frank Hopper.
• Mayer House – Paul W. Huddleston, Hugh W. Frey and James Shaw.
• Southwest Social Center – E. H. Janke, C. T. Mooreland, Miss Mary Rigg.
• Public at Large – Reynold Carlson, of Indiana University and George L. Denny, Attorney

This board quickly went to work with the Lilly Endowment grant money and purchased the Von Kessler estate and set up by-laws and on May 29, 1951 the agency was incorporated and became Settlements Camping Incorporated.

As soon as the new agency was formulated the directors looked at a mid 1952 date of the first pilot camp hoping that other donors would become interested in a project that promises to become an important factor in the lives of children who crave a chance to lift themselves up and out of difficult surroundings.

The vision and dream of the first board of directors represented the first time, in this state or elsewhere throughout the country, that five separate social-work agencies have combined strengths to bring to their members a program that no one agency could hope to achieve (END OF SPOTLIGHT ARTICLE). Their opening date was off by two years but in the summer of 1954 the first boys and girls stepped foot onto the property for a summer that turned out to be more magical then they could have ever imagined.

Today Happy Hollow Camps Board of Directors and Staff still continue the dreams of the original founders and Settlement Houses. Our mission and goals are still the same but have expanded to include children with certain special needs.