Summer of 2024 Begins

I have just returned from the gym where Carter and I officially welcomed over 300 campers to Junior Camp for Alpine’s 66th summer. I’m Glenn Breazeale. My wife Carter and I are the Directors at Alpine. We took a few minutes after dinner to meet with the entire camp. We would have done it earlier but felt it was much more important to get boys active around camp this afternoon. They’d much rather run around and have fun with new friends and old than listen to their “camp mom and dad” talk to them! Carter reminded them of just that, we are here for them, like their mom and dad away from home. I introduced a few other leaders in camp, guys that are always available to help in addition to the cabin counselors. And we discussed some “family rules”, based on the idea that as a Christian camp we want to show love to all, even if they are different than us. Alpine is not a place where we make fun of others or put others down to make ourselves feel better. It’s also not a place where we keep secrets and we speak up if something makes us uncomfortable. Or if we’re sick or hurt. And especially if we’re feeling a bit homesick on these first few days. That is VERY normal because we all miss something from home. Our hope in having this meeting is to put boys at ease and let them know that all of us, including their counselors, are here to care for them.

And now that I think about it, maybe they were so quiet because they knew when we were done they would get to go play some more! Tyler Proffitt, our program director, planned fun evening games for each age group to wrap up our Opening Day.

This morning after you left we accomplished a few necessary stops before lunch. Cabins dropped into the Lodge for lice checks and a health screen by our camp doctor, Dr. Clayton Dugan. Dr. Dugan is a pediatrician in Birmingham, a former Alpine counselor, and a good friend. We are so grateful for he and our three nurses, Sallie Tingle, Mary Louis Quinn, and Sarah Elizabeth Elkin, for taking such good care of our boys this week.

Our two camp photographers, Ford and Weston, set up shop in front of our beautiful oak leaf hydrangeas for cabin photos. Those, along with many other candid shots from Opening Day, will be posted tomorrow by lunch time. Counselors showed their boys around camp as well, focusing on areas boys would be attending later that afternoon in activities. Tyler served a healthy snack of crackers, apples, and fruit late morning, a welcome holdover until the lunch bell rung.

Speaking of lunch, your boys became part of Alpine history today, the first campers to eat in our newly renovated Dining Hall. This project has been in the works for several years now and we are so grateful and excited about it’s completion. As you can imagine if you’ve ever done a home reno, there is still quite a punch list to be knocked out. We are so proud of it, mostly because it provides our cooks and kitchen crew a much better space to provide the best food and service to our campers and staff. Food is a big deal at Alpine. It has been since Carter’s dad started camp in 1959. Camps are not always known for their tasty food; see almost any camp movie ever made! Mr.O’s father told him when he started camp at 24: whatever you do, don’t skimp on the food. Mrs. Gail, our head cook, is a second generation food director, following in the footsteps of her legendary mother, Bea Crow. 2 head cooks in 66 summers is something for which we are very thankful.

We’ll be excited to show you the new Dining Hall and surrounding landscaping on Closing Day. Basically we demolished the back 1/3 of the building, the kitchen. We added back a kitchen about 2.5 times the size, much more appropriate for our current size than the 50 year old kitchen built for about half of our current population. We also renovated every portion of the main Dining Hall from the new roof down to the added foundation and floor joists. Landscaping and drainage is now in place to address years of erosion and wet weather run off (everything slants to the river around here!)

We’ve always felt that the Dining Hall is the heart of camp, the gathering spot, the place of many meaningful memories for generations of campers. We believed strongly that it was worth going above and beyond. There’s something intimate and special about sharing a meal with friends and mentors. It’s a celebration, a feast, and way to share fellowship and laughter. In today’s modern world, our meals are even more special with not a bit of technology in sight. To look out on 38 tables, 10 boys and 2 counselors to a table, talking and sharing stories, and no one buried in a device, is rather refreshing.

I look forward to bringing you news from Alpine every few days via the blog. And the photos will help tell the story as well. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll get a good old fashioned hand written letter from your camper! Thank you for allowing your boys to be here. It is a true privilege that you would allow them to be with us high atop Lookout Mountain for this term.

Thanks for reading and good night for now, Glenn