Walter Scott History Paper
By Harold Smith
12/8/24
If you and/or your kids are looking to experience God’s creation in a way that is totally unique, I have a suggestion for you. When I say the words “church camp,” it may bring back pleasant memories of swimming, hiking, crafting, Bible study and such. But when it comes to church camp in the 21st century, until you’ve been to Walter Scott Camp and Learning Center, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Named after one of the original founders of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) movement in the 1800’s, Walter Scott Camp has been welcoming young and old alike for over 60 years. Walter Scott Camp stands on about 180 acres southeast of Effingham near the town of Dieterich in southeast Illinois. It is one of about 30 camps around the country that are part of the Association of Disciples and Outdoor Ministry. According to the camp’s Resident Minister and Caretaker Clayton Summers, in the camp’s early days, the setting was about as rustic as it gets. When you camped, you made sure to bring your tent, and there were no standing structures on the property.
In the ensuing decades, Summers says that, as improvements have been made to enhance the comfort level of campers, the challenge has been, and continues to be, to incorporate structures and other improvements into the property while still staying true to God’s creation itself. The first structures were a shower house and the dining hall (the basement of the dining hall was actually built first), followed by the creation of a lake, then the building of a Retreat House, a residence for a live-in director and caretaker, along with cabins for the campers and a conference room. All while keeping the disturbance of the natural beauty of the camp setting to a minimum.
If there were ever someone who was born and raised to hold the position of Resident Minister and Caretaker of Walter Scott Camp and Learning Center, it would be Clayton Summers. In our conversation, Summers told me his first Walter Scott Camp experience came at a Grandparents and Me camp in 2000 when Clayton was in Kindergarten. He continued to be a regular camp attendee over the years.
Clayton met the lady who would become his wife when they were both campers at Walter Scott (they were married in the camp dining hall in 2019). Meantime, Clayton entered ministerial studies, earning his Master of Divinity degree and becoming a youth pastor. When the opportunity to become Walter Scott Camp’s live-in director presented itself, Clayton jumped at the opportunity.
As you might imagine, when it comes to accepting glory for the good things happening at Walter Scott Camp, Summers is quick to shower praise on the literally thousands of volunteers who have given of their time and talents over the last sixty-plus years. From counselors to kitchen help to the stewards of the natural setting, Summers estimates that some 250,000 volunteer-hours share much of the credit in making Walter Scott Camp and Learning Center what it continues to be.
Everyone who interacts with children undergoes a background check, and learning materials have been developed by professionals in the field, for use by similar facilities around the country. And speaking of the camp’s natural setting, according to the Walter Scott website, “we are committed to caring for God’s Creation. This is expansive work that is not just about switching to greener ways of doing the things we already do, but thinking about our relationship with the environment, our spirituality and the responsibilities we have to know and be known in the place we are.”
The list of ways Walter Scott Camp has “Gone Green” is a lengthy one. It includes:
- Planting vegetable gardens to share with the community
- Conducting regular energy audits
- Partnering with Faith-In-Place to convert grass under power lines to native prairie.
- Installing a solar array to power their central group of buildings.
- Acquiring goats to remove invasive underbrush without the usage of ecologically hazardous herbicides.
- Participating in “Low Mow May” – only mowing around buildings as necessary.
The 2025 camp schedule at Walter Scott begins in June, with youth camps scheduled for ages 5 through 18, along with camps for families, a service week and camps for the LGBTQ community and a Social Justice camp. If you have children who might be interested in attending Walter Scott Camp and Learning Center in 2025 or you would be interested in being involved as a counselor or volunteer, you can log on to www.campwalterscott.org, or call or text 501-570-6685 for more information.
