Billings Lions Sponsor Free Summer Camp
The quiet stillness of the crisp morning air of the Beartooth Mountains is sharply pierced by the ringing of a cowbell, bringing the delivery of a morning wake up to the campers and counselors of the Charles Campbell Children’s Camp to prepare for another amazing day at Camp!
Since 1961 the Billings Lions Club has sponsored the entirely free, week long summer camp for amazing children aged 6 to 18 with physical disabilities, but their dedication to serving others started decades earlier.
In 1946, the Billings Lions Club hosted the “Deserving Boys Camp” at the Billings Lions Beartooth Mountain Youth Camp outside of Red Lodge Montana.
The camp was first proposed by then Club President Dr. Charles D. Dean, with the getaway being touted as a “free vacation” for less fortunate boys in Billings. After a “hearty indorsement”, the Lions Club sponsored the inaugural Camp July 1946 for 80 youths. The boys were first nominated by Billings school principals and educators, then selected by a committee of Lions members- boys aged 10-14 (depending on the article) boarded buses to head to the Beartooths for a week away from “financial worries” of their home lives.
The goal was to give boys the opportunity to experience the awe-inspiring freedom of the mountains – away from the struggles of home life and to hike, cook, and experience all the wonderment of nature.
The camps first director Justus (JW) Leggate spoke about the hesitancy of parents, citing financial concerns as he “emphasized the camp was an expense-free affair”, with unsure parents inquiring about how much it would cost them when their sons returned.
The generosity of the Billings Lions Club sponsorship of the Camp was achieved after “the problem of financing such an undertaking presented the next hurdle” and the solution becoming the first annual “Lions Club Minstrel Show” bringing in $1,100, “assuring ample funds for the first year. The camp ran for at least 6 years, and its impacts have affected generations. .
Today the Charles Campbell Children’s Camp, named after Montana’s only back to back Past District Governor Charles “Chuck” Campbell (1972-1974) who was instrumental in persuading the Billings Lions Club to assume the camp after the Elks Club could no longer run it, offers youth an amazing opportunity to experience nature in the Beartooths while escaping the sometimes tumultuous “real world”.
This year’s camp had 25 campers and 26 counselors, along with 18 volunteer staff members including many Billings Lions Club members. Each year we have a multitude of activities planned including crafts, a hike, archery and ax throwing (kid appropriate), a splash park, a dance, theme night, a movie night, and a host of other adventures for the week.
The Camp is supported by the rental of the Billings Lions Beartooth Mountain Youth Camp during the summer to other youth groups an opportunity to experience the mountains. Our camp has been around since the 1920s, being built by the Civilian Conservation Corps while they worked on the Beartooth Highway.
Camp is an amazing place where innumerable memories have been made and countless lives have been impacted by those who follow the Lions mantra of “We Serve” by giving their time and love for humanity and service to others.
