Camp Linden celebrates 100 years

WEST BRADFORD–For a century campers have been coming to Camp Linden. The camp celebrated 100 years at its current location, five miles from West Chester, on Saturday.

The mostly wooded 50-acre day-camp on the Brandywine Creek is owned by the Philadelphia Ethical Society and serves school age children from low-income families. The property was donated by Jeannie Fels.

Camp Linden offers a six-week, one day per week summer program to children mostly from 6 to 11 years old, from urban and inner-city neighborhoods. The camp serves between 150 and 200 campers annually.

"Our nature program inspires campers to observe with all their senses and fully appreciate the natural world," reads a Camp Linden brochure.

Environmental education, character building and swimming come at no cost to the families.

Each day, Camp Linden values are promoted. They include: 1. Value yourself. 2. Value other people. 3. Value planet earth and all living things.

There is a different theme and activity each week, with lessons covering: plant basics and gardening; insects and pollination; earth and energy; watersheds and pollution; and native American culture and gardening.

The garden includes 12, 4' by 12' raised beds lined with edible flowers called a nasturtium. The kids eat nasturtium, peas, carrots and other vegetables and herbs from the garden their first week.

The campers plant and transplant seedlings and each week return to see the plants mature. For the last week of camp, they harvest and help prepare produce for the closing camp feast.

Campers walk the trails, wade in the Brandywine, catch insects and toads, dig for worms and test the water quality. Each camper takes swimming lessons at their level and swims recreationally.

Amy Johnston is CEO at the camp and said that the campers at first are a little intimidated but then turn ecstatic.

"I feel grateful to introduce them to nature and have them fall in love with it and make them safer swimmers," Johnston said.

While the camp hit a rough patch with funding and was briefly closed, Johnston pointed to Carol Love as the "camp savior."

"Carol fought for it," Johnston said. "Without her, (Camp Linden) wouldn't be here."

Johnston announced the naming of a camp building as "The Carol Love Nature Cabin."

This was the first visit to the camp for state Rep. Chris Sappey. She maintained that we should be committed to natural resources and have a responsibility to protect them.

"It's not a privilege," Sappey said. "It's something we all should have access to at all times.

"Access to clean water, soil and air is part of the Pennsylvania Constitution."

Philip Lindsay is with the Philadelphia Ethical Society.

"We have to act as stewards and come out here as human beings," he said. "It's a space–not private–but meant to be shared.

"It gives a sense of belonging in the woods and the Brandywine. We are giving kids a ‘big space' to play."

Lindsay said the Ethical Society is a group of people who take what is best from religion, and through critical thinking is a democratic society.

Founding Ethical Society principles include: deed before creed and acting as to elicit the best in others.

Sharon Wallace is trustee of the Philadelphia Ethical Society.

"What we do here is teach children to love nature," she said.

Local non-profits and other organizations met at the camp on Saturday, including the 19-girl Troop 19, sponsored by United Marshallton Methodist Church.

Rose Perone is a Tenderfoot who has earned the Swimming, Environmental Science and First Aid merit badges.

"You can learn some stuff for later when you grow up," the young scout said, "Merit badges train you for a future career.

"We make new friends and have new experiences."

Marshallton Conservation Trust , a local non-profit visited. The group sponsors local events like the Marshallton Memorial Day Parade and is interested in land conservation and open space.

The West Chester Green Team also participated and philosophically supports the like-minded objectives of the camp.

Kristen Frentzel, Assistant Director of Conservation and Stewardship at the Brandywine Conservancy, was also on hand to explain how a conservation easement works to preserve land, while honoring a private owner's negotiated objectives. An easement was placed on Camp Linden in 2022.

And Pamela Bastings was there with clothing to show what people wore many years ago.

For more information on the Pennsylvania Ethical Society, go to www.phillyethics.org

To learn more about Camp Linden, go to www.camplinden.org

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