Beacon Campus
Camp Alumni
View our first Beacon Alum Newsletter
here!
If you are a University Settlement Camp alum and would like to receive periodic updates, please click here.
Camp regular Pete Seeger in the early 1970s leading the familiar yearly sing-along at camp.
The pastoral setting of Beacon, NY, offers urban residents a much needed respite from city life.
One
of University Settlement's most important gifts in its earliest days
was the donation of approximately 100 acres of bucolic property at the
foot of Mount Beacon, 60 miles up the Hudson River from our home on the
Lower East Side. It was 1910, and the Settlement quickly established
its renowned residential camp facility there, a haven for generations
of New York City children, where thousands fled urban life and
experienced nature for the first time. Part of the camp's philosophy
was to spread a message of hope, tolerance and community building. A
corps of Work Campers helped staff the camp in the decades after World
War II to learn the art and the value of community work and selfless
service. Generations of other young adults were counselors, and many
remain the Settlement's most fervent supporters today.
In
2007, after a difficult period when the challenge of supporting a
residential, seasonal camp became untenable, a decision was made to
sell the property. The sale was made final on Friday, January 4, 2008 -- a very sad day for many who worked diligently to save the property for
productive and quality uses. However on a very positive note, the sale
provided University Settlement with additional financial resources with
which to strengthen its core operation. The New York State Department
of Parks and Recreation purchased the camp for its full appraised
value; the State will make an arrangement with the City of Beacon to
manage most of the property as a public open space according to a plan
to now be developed by Beacon. The remaining property (the mountain
slope) will be protected as part of the larger publicly-owned watershed
area.
To all who loved camp and worked so hard to
support it, we thank you and hope that you will stay in touch with
University Settlement where the work and message remain the same...and
20,000 City residents a year are improving their lives with our
programs.
University Settlement will maintain a Camp
Archive. If you would like to forward your memories of Camp, or
photographs/memorabilia, please contact beaconcamp@universitysettlement.org.
