Woman doesn’t need walls to preach

Ed Mahon

HOWARD — In the four years that Cathy Dawes has been the chaplain at Bald Eagle State Park, rain has interrupted her worship service twice.

CDT photo/Ed Mahon

Volunteer chaplain Cathy Dawes leads a worship service on Sunday at Bald Eagle State Park.

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The first time, rain was her theme, so the precipitation fit well. She believes there was a higher purpose for the second downfall, too.

“I really think God thought I was getting a little too long-winded,” Dawes told 20 congregants gathered outside Sunday morning for a non-denominational Christian service.

Dawes and 24 other chaplains have preached to about 1,000 campers each Sunday from Memorial Day to Labor Day through the “Chaplaincy in the Park” program. The program, which finished its 49th year Sunday, provides outdoor worship services in Pennsylvania’s private

campgrounds and state parks, including Bald Eagle, R.B. Winter and Poe Paddy. But the program is struggling financially, and coordinator Larry Flood said the closing of some parks for construction, the economy, and lower attendance likely due to weather, have all combined to reduce donations this year.

Sunday’s service was the last of the season, and likely Dawes’ last as Bald Eagle’s chaplain. She started as a volunteer with the program five years ago and took over the Bald Eagle chaplain position the next year.

“I have discovered that I do have a calling for pastoring,” said Dawes, who lives near Lock Haven and spent almost 20 years working at Champion Parts Rebuilders in Beech Creek. She was a line worker in the quality control section when the factory closed in 2002. She’s since worked part time in child care centers and hopes to become a pastor at a local parish. She’s been accepted into a pastor certification program in the United Methodist Church, and is scheduled to start training in January.

“And, hopefully, next year at this time, I will be in — for me — what will be a strange place: A church with walls,” she told the parishioners.

On Sunday, the service was simple. Dawes wore a wood cross attached by blue yarn. There were three songs, and no Eucharist. Her husband, Art, helped set up the sound system in the front and the coffee and doughnut station in the back. At one point, he reminded her to pass around the offering basket. She greeted parishioners, handed out song books, sang a cappella as she led the group in “This Is the Day That the Lord Has Made” and “Amazing Grace.” She said her knees still knock and her heart still races before a song “but God has brought me a long way.”

During a portion of the service for children, she compared the story of the prodigal son to Shel Silver-stein’s “The Giving Tree.”

“It’s about God loving us so much that even when we do stupid things, if we keep coming back to him, he’s going to keep accepting us. And maybe some day we won’t want to do stupid things,” said Dawes. She also runs Saturday programs for children that are more secular. On Saturday, for instance, she read just “The Giving Tree.”

Afterward, Betty Bair had high praise for the service and the chaplain. A former resident of the Williamsport area, she moved to Vero Beach, Fla., in 2001 with her husband, Dick. She was surprised there weren’t more who attended and said she liked Dawes’ message, which focused on grace. Plus, the service was “short, sweet, to the point.”

Then she added, “And she’s got a nice voice.”

Ed Mahon can be reached at 231-4619.