Seventeen campers and eleven leaders from the Salkehatchie Harvest Camp are braving the hot temperatures this week to repair two homes in the Floyd Dale and Latta areas.
Campers ranging in age from 14-19 arrived on July 13th and will be staying through July 20th at Dillon Middle School. All campers pay $250 to register and that pays for the material they use to do flooring, roofing, painting, and more. The campers this summer came from Charleston, Hanahan, Lexington, Gilbert, and Ridgeville as well as Sudbury United Methodist Church in Massachusetts.
Many local churches are assisting the camp with meals during the week. many churches who help with meals. Main Street Methodist Church is their home church. Other churches that provide support are Saint Stephens and Beulah UMC, Dillon Church of God, Latta Methodist Church, Manning Chapel and Oakland Methodist Church, Word Church of Jesus Christ, McCoy Chapel, Bowling Green, and New Holly UMC, Open Door Community Church, Hamer Church of God, and East Dillon Baptist Church.
The group is smaller than in years past. Dan Griswold, Camp Director, said that prior to COVID, they would have almost 100 campers, and the camp is reseeding the future.
The homes were selected with referrals from Main Street Methodist Church and the Dillon Council on Aging. In the spring, they visit the homeowners to see if there is enough work for them to do in a week, and they let the homeowners know before they come in mid-July.
At the home in Floyd Dale, campers are replacing all subflooring in the home and placing down new LPV so it will be stable and look beautiful.
At the home in Latta, campers are replacing a deck in the back and a ramp in the front to the home that were falling in with age. The youth on this site are younger and learning basic principles of building decks and ramps.
Griswold says that youth who return say that they feel empowered to be leaders and many later enter helping vocations as doctors, nurses, pastors, and leadership in community organizations and their churches.
Salkehatchie was born out of the United Methodist Church of South Carolina and now is an interdenominational Christian mission that serves people all over the state. The Salkehatchie Camps started over 35 years ago when a Methodist pastor felt he needed to connect young people to the deep physical and spiritual needs of people in South Carolina. There have been as many as 50 camps bringing together people of faith into service repairing homes to make them “safe and dry” in an effort to live out Jesus’ command to “love our neighbor.” This camp is called “Harvest Camp” in Dillon, and they have worked with over 100 homeowners over the last 15 years.
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