NORTH BROOKFIELD – The girl’s golf class at Camp Atwater took a surprise turn recently when a bear wandered onto the makeshift fairway. “He walked out of the woods and right across the field,” recalled Capus “Buck” Gee, director of the camp operated by the Urban League of Springfield. For nine decades, Camp Atwater has been offering eye-opening experiences for...
NORTH BROOKFIELD – The girl’s golf class at Camp Atwater took a surprise turn recently when a bear wandered onto the makeshift fairway.
“He walked out of the woods and right across the field,” recalled Capus “Buck” Gee, director of the camp operated by the Urban League of Springfield.
For nine decades, Camp Atwater has been offering eye-opening experiences for African-American campers, from boating, fencing and hiking to mingling with kids from other regions and backgrounds.
For Imani Wiggins, 13, of Springfield, nothing summed up the camp’s promise of outdoor adventure and broader horizons than spotting a bear while taking a golf lesson.
“I’d never seen a bear before,” said Imani. “I thought he’d be big and growling and scary, but he was really calm.”
Set on 75 acres and fronting on Lake Lashaway, the camp was founded in 1921 by the Rev. William N. DeBerry, and is listed on The National Register of Historic Places as the oldest summer camp for blacks.
For decades, the camp was an oasis of opportunity amid racial intolerance, offering the All-American version of summer that was largely reserved for white children.
As its reputation grew, the camp drew kids from Greater Springfield and Boston, as well as middle-class black families in Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago and southern and western states.
With each passing decade, the network of distinguished Camp Atwater alumni also grew — from Pulitzer Prize winning musician George Walker, late Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown and top Walt Disney executive Dennis Hightower to Wayne Budd, former U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts and Roderick Ireland, the current chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
“At Camp Atwater, I learned you didn’t have to make a choice between being cool and being smart,” said Urban League Executive Director Henry Thomas, who spent three summers as a camper and another as counselor.
“There were so many kids from places like Philly or New York or Chicago who were cool and also talking about being lawyers or doctors,” Thomas said.
“It was a different kind of conversation than I was used to,” he added.
The camp includes 40 buildings and a 3-acre island just off shore; hundreds of plaques hang in the assembly hall, commemorating the feats of campers dating back to the 1930s.
The camp itself is steeped in history; the oldest building dates back to the 1770s, and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt slept there during a visit in 1930s.
With small changes, the camp looks as it did 50 or 100 years ago, a time capsule of summer.
Kimberly Williams, diversity consultant for Baystate Health Systems, said the camp’s value went far beyond its activities and rituals.
“As a 45-year-old black woman, there aren’t many places I can go with large crowds without meeting people who were at Camp Atwater, or whose mother, sister or cousin went there,” Williams said.
“There’s a lot of legacy; a lot of history there,” she said.
For Wayne Budd, the time spent as a waiter at Camp Atwater broadened his horizons, just as the network of alumni helped his legal career.
“Even today I run into people who ask when you were there, and what you remember about it,” Budd said.
“I got to meet black kids from all over the country; it was a great experience,” he said.