Thomas J. Brannon
CAMP McCALL CELEBRATES HALF CENTURY OF BUILDING BOYS, MEN, FAMILIES
The influence that McCall Royal Ambassador (R.A.) Camp, now called Camp McCall, has had on the lives of South Carolina Baptist boys, men and families was reflected in
part on July 18,2009, when nearly 600 persons returned to the sacred mountain to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Camp. It has been said that if you were to take all
the campers who have come through the gates of McCall and line them up side by side with outstretched arms, you could form a circle around the entire perimeter of South Carolina and still have some overlap.
Royal Ambassadors is the missions education and action organization for Baptist boys ages 6-18. Since Camp McCall moved to its present location in 1960, more than 112,394 boys have spent a week enjoying the majestic setting, worship, mission studies, fellowship and recreation with other youth from around the Palmetto State.
Prior to the establishment of Camp McCall, RAs attended Camp Rawls near Wagner. When Camp McCall expected to open for the 1959 season , was not ready, North Greenville Junior College (now North Greenville University) became the campus for the lively and adventurous boys’ gathering. Camp McCall was known for the first five years as Camp Sunset, named for the small Pickens County township of Sunset, SC, which remains the Camp McCall address.
Camp McCall is named for its original donor, R.C. McCall of Easley who gave 99 acres to build the camp. Additional gifts and land purchases enabled the camp to add buffer property and to expand the campsite to its present 310 acres.
Located in the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains near the SC/NC border, Camp McCall was the first and is the largest Royal Ambassador Camp in the nation and the only one accredited by the American Camp Association.
Among the nearly 600 who attended the McCall 50th Anniversary celebration were 178 former staffers. Many camp experiences of the staffers and campers were shared during the celebration ceremonies held in the Chapel and in the adjoining over-flow tent.It was quickly obvious that Camp McCall experiences were life-changing for many young men and boys.
The McCall family tree keeps growing. Every person associated with the Camp is considered a member of the McCall family. There is a large number of staffers who have married the sisters, daughters, and nieces of other staff members. More than two dozen sets of brothers have served on the camp staff across the years, and there are numerous other family connections within the extended McCall family. Many of the boys who attend camp for years, choose to return to work as staff. Some attended camp for as many as 12 years and some staffers have served 13 years or longer.
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The camp chapel, which sits atop a mountain overlooking the camp, is one of the State’s most breath-taking sites. And the chapel has special meaning to every person who has encountered its beauty and tranquility. In the chapel, hundreds of young men and boys, most now leaders in their respective churches, denomination and professions, have made life-changing decisions here. The camping season, just ended, recorded 556 decisions, including professions of faith, fulltime Christian service commitments and rededications. Since Camp McCall’s first season, 23,198 Christian decisions have been recorded on this mountain.
One special event at the anniversary celebration was an announcement that the South Carolina Baptist Convention was naming the chapel The Satterwhite Chapel, in honor of Cliff and Barbara Satterwhite. Cliff is Camp McCall’s longest tenured camp director (35 years) and Wife Barbara served for 25 years as Business Administrator. Cliff is an ACA Certified Camp Director.
“We could not be more surprised or honored,” Cliff said of the move to name the chapel in their honor, “This is indeed a holy place. So many staffers come back to the chapel during ‘rough’ times in their lives. They leave notes in the chapel visitors’ log: remembrances, thanksgiving, prayers, confessions. Some staffers have proposed to their fiancés in the chapel. And about every year, two or three staffers choose the Chapel at
McCall as the location for their wedding,” Cliff said, “It’s a really special and sacred place.”
Among those who returned for the Camp’s anniversary was Bill Montague, now 80 and a life time member of Eau Clair Baptist Church in Columbia. Montague has been South Carolina’s premiere Royal Ambassador leader for over 55 years, including 40 years of service as counselor at Camp McCall. Cabin #7 at McCall was permanently named the Bill Montague Cabin. Bill believes that Camp McCall is one of the greatest things South Carolina Baptists have in the state.
Lloyd Batson, now 86 and “having a ball”, is Camp McCall’s longest tenured camp pastor. He served for 33 years as pastor “and other assignments” . Batson, retired pastor of First Baptist Church, Pickens, also has been President of the South Carolina Baptist Convention and served two and a half terms as chairman of the Sunday School Board, SBC. “Nobody ever had a better time than I did at McCall,” Batson said, “Many men tell me they became a Christian under my camp pastor ministry at McCall and that makes the effort more than worthwhile”, he added. Batson said that he had always been impressed with the commitment of the staff.
Camp McCall was born as a vision of the late John A. Farmer, for many years director of the State Convention’s Brotherhood Department, who dreamed of a camp where men and boys could have a fresh encounter with God and could learn firsthand about ministry and
missions opportunities at home and abroad. Staffer David Bennett received the 2009 John Farmer Memorial Scholarship.
Camp McCall has had six directors in its 50 year history: J. Cordell Maddox, Mike Chertok, J.C. Ballew, James L. Beacham, N. Clifton Satterwhite (1975-present) and Eddie Pettit (Director/Manager) since 2006. Hundreds of others have served as assistant directors, maintenance superintendents, business administrators, nurses, dieticians, cooks
and other support roles.
Every season’s camp staff at McCall believes that their first mission is the campers individually and collectively, but shortly following the close of the 2009 McCall camping season, more than half of the staff left the state for several additional weeks of hands-on-missions in the United States, Africa and Peru.
(Thomas J. Brannon)
