Who Donated Camp Crowell/Hilaka?

With the revelelation that Mr. Guy Renkert's family had donated the land for Great Trail Camp and was still keeping an eye on making sure it was used properly, lots of people have been asking "who donated the land for Crowell Hilaka? " Here is the answer:

Instead of getting a land donation and then deciding to put a camp on it, the Cleveland Girl Scout Council was looking for a place that they could turn into a camp. The main qualification was that it have a lake large enough for swimming and boating.

One description of the camp search said that real estate agents kept showing them abandoned farms with creeks that " could easily be dammed up to create a lake" and that they were all getting tired of crawling underneath barbed wire fences.

When they found the Kirby property in 1936, they were thrilled. Two lakes, a boat house, dining hall, main house ( to be used for camp staff and adult trainings) and the farm buildings. Plus the mill was so pretty it would inspire arts & crafts.

The property was valued at $85,500.00 Kirby said he would take $48,500.00 for it because of it was for the Girl Scouts. The committee figured that they needed to raise $60,000.00 because in addition to buying the property, they would need to set up campsites and outfit the dining hall.

They decided that Eleanor Garfield would start by heading up the "special gifts" division of the fund-raising campaign. ( I think this means asking the wealthier citizens for large contributions. As the wife of a US president's grandson, she probably had the society connections needed to pull that off. ) There was a Scout family division and a Public division. They planned with the media to get continuous coverage of the campaign which would run from February 9 to February 26 (1937) . They got endorsements from a star-studded list of respected pillars of the community*. They developed a brochure explaining why the Girl Scouts needed the camp and why the place they had chosen was so perfect.

The official campaign kicked off with a dinner and entertainment at the University Club of Cleveland. Mr. Kirby attended, as did Mrs. Benedict ( Julia) Crowell. Girls enacted a "pantomime" called "Camping through the Calendar" . Following the event, newspapers and community bulletins kept up a steady stream of reports on how much money had been collected and encouraging people to give more.

5,050 individuals donated toward the purchase of the camp. Amounts ranged from 10 cents to 10 thousand dollars.

Donations came from "every corner of Cuyahoga County". The youngest donor was seven years old.

At the time, there were 3,626 Girl Scouts in the Cleveland Council.

So the answer to the question of "who donated the camp?" would be "the people of Cuyahoga County."

*

Endorsements for purchase of a camp for Cleveland GS Council 1936 / 37 came from

Eleanor Rooseveldt

Lou Henry Hoover

Elliot Ness

Junior Leauge of Cleveland

Charles H. Lake

Mrs. R.N. Rutledge

Mr. & Mrs. Max Hellman

Rabbi Abba H. Silver

Dr. A Caswell Ellis

Mrs. F.W. Reindel

Mrs. E.L. Shupe

Paul Bellamy

Mrs. Robert H. Jamison

Mrs. Frank L. Session

Fred Ramnsey

A.G. Knebel

Edward D. Lynde

Rabbi B.R. Bricker

The camp planning committee was headed by Harold L. Madison, director of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Mary Colley, age 15, was selected as the "representative Girl Scout" pictured on the campaign flier.

Opening Banquet

Mrs. Carlton W. Bonfils was chairman of banquet arrangements

Mrs. Alexander C. Robinson was program chairman, assisted by:

Mrs. John A. Kiggen Jr. ( publicity chair)

Mrs. Stanlee Orr ( chairman of hosteses)

Mrs. Fred Harroff

Mrs. J. Jones Hudson

Mrs. E.A. Fisher

Mrs. George Jones

Mrs. Normal Siegel

Mrs. W.A. Roberts

Mrs. F.O. Fleming

Mrs. Howard Dingle

Mrs. Edwin Parkhurst

Proffessor Henry Miller Busch of Cleveland College was the keynote speaker

GS Troop 89 (captained by Mrs. Clifford Jorns) and GS troop 120 ( captained by Mrs. William C. Russell) took part in the " Camping Around the Calendar" skit.

Girls Jo Anne Galberach, Elizabeth Izant, and Peggy Camplejohn were pictured in the Plain Dealer laying logs on a pretend fire in the skit

Mrs. Clifford E. Jorns - author of skit lyrics

additional entertainment by radio stars Delma Lee and the Kay sisters

a motion picture by Mrs. Warner Seely of the new campsite was shown

According to the Cleveland NEWS, the following accepted invitations to sit at the speakers' table:

Mayor & Mrs. Harold H. Burton

Mr. & Mrs. Edward D. Lynde

Mr. & Mrs Hal Griswold

Mr. & Mrs. James R. Garfield

Mr. Harold Madison

Mr. George Green

Banquet attendees pictured in the Cleveland Press report:

J.B. Kirby

Mrs. Benedict Crowell

Menry M. Busch

Mrs. Henry Friede

Mrs. Hal Griswold

Harold L. Madison

Miss Grace Courtade

Miss Mary Driver

Miss Fay Stein

Miss Jean Warwick

Mrs. Stanlee Bates

Warner Seely

Mrs C Bonfils

George E Greer

Mrs Rudold Garfield

Mrs B.F. Quate

Miss Ann Wright

Stanlee T. Bates

support also came from

Mrs. Cleaveland Cross

From the Financial Report of the Capitol Account Drive. Cleveland GS Council February 26, 1938

Campaign Executive Commitee

Mrs. Henry Friede , Comissioner

Mr. Warner Seely, General Campaign Chairman

Mrs. Rudolf [Eleanor] Garfield, Special Gifts Chairman

Mrs. B.F. McQuate, Public Division Chairman

Mrs. Clifford Jorns, Scout Division Chairman

Mr. James B. Garfield, Treasurer

Camp Construction Committee

Mr. Morris A. Black, Chairman

Mr. Alexander Robinson, III

Mr. W.F. Schickler

Mr. E.A.Fisher

Mr. Gilbert R. Osterland

Mr. James B. Kirby

Mr. Henry Friede

Dr. R.W. Markwith

Mr. Harold Madison

Mr. John Homer Kapp

Special mention was made to Glidden & Co., The Electrical League, The Ohio Edison Co., Walsh & Co., and the newspapers for their invaluable publicity

The estate of Mr. & Mrs. James B. Kirby became the property of the Cleveland Girl Scout Council on April 7, 1937

The deed for the property was formally presented at the dedication ceremonies held at the camp on June 20, 1937. ON this date the camp was named in honor of Mrs. Benedict Crowell. Garfield Lodge was dedicated August 9th. Kirby house was dedicated on August 17th.

403 different girls between the ages of 7 and 18 attended the first summer camp sessions. From September 1, 1937 to February 26 when the first financial report on the camp was written, the camp was in "constant use" . 16 troops comprised of 252 girls camped on the weekends, 260 girls were served during 3 snow days. 8 conferences and training courses served 238 adults

Cleveland GS council -1937

Miss Anne Wright, Director [ CEO ]

[ the following are what today we would call the board officers ]

Mrs. Henry [Linnea] Friede, Commissioner

Mrs. B.F. McQuate, first deputy commissioner

Mrs. Stanlee T. [Margaret] Bates second deputy commissioner

Miss Grace Cody , third deputy commissioner

Mrs. Morris A. Black, corresponding secretary

Mrs. John H. Kapp, recording secretary

Mrs. John Pavlik, treasurer

Mrs. Bennett Chappele, of Middleton, OH; regional chairman

information for this history snippet comes from the 1938 CGSC report / 39 clippings provided by Farnham Publicity Service 1937 /

courtsy, archives of the GSNEO history committee

For newspaper articles and other information about the campaign to raise money to buy Camp Julia/Crowell, click here.  But be warned:  This is a 46-megabyte file, and it's going to take a long time to download.