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YMCA Camp Lawrence is a residential summer camp for boys located on Bear Island in Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. It is owned and operated by the Merrimack Valley YMCA, based in Lawrence, Massachusetts. It is the only island-based boys camp in New Hampshire, and one of only several in the country.〔http://www.acacamps.org American Camping Association website〕 The Merrimack Valley YMCA also operates Camp Nokomis, a residential summer camp for girls, also located on Bear Island. ==History== The Lawrence YMCA first offered a summer day camp for young boys in 1901 or 1902, but the origins of "Camp Lawrence" as a residential camp can be traced to 1906, with a 10-day program run in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. In late August and early September, 30 boys and 2 adults spent their days engaged in sports, swimming, boating and outings to nearby attractions.〔Craig, Jon R., ed. ''Camp Lawrence: 1906-1982''. Self-published: 1983.〕 For 8 of the next 9 years, the Lawrence YMCA ran similar camping programs in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, changing sites nearly every year. The sole year without a summer camp, 1911, was due to the YMCA's move to a new facility and the financial and administrative challenges involved with it. Beginning in 1916, however, the camp found a home at Loon Cove in Alton, New Hampshire, on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee. The five years spent at Loon Cove saw tremendous growth. The camping season was expanded to a full 9 weeks, of which 4 weeks were the regular Boys Camp. Boy Scouts, choir boys, and "employed boys" from Lawrence used the facilities for the remainder of the season. The camp purchased its first motor launches for transportation and entertainment on the lake. From 31 boys in 1912, by 1920 the Boys Camp population had grown to 219 - more than the Loon Cove property could comfortably accommodate. In the fall of 1920, a committee from the YMCA, led by George Hamblet, surveyed several island areas before settling on the southern tip of Bear Island. The following spring, Loon Cove was abandoned and all the camp equipment (including the large tents) was transported to the new site. The tents were erected on wooden platforms on the eastern shore of the property, facing across the lake towards the Ossipee Mountains. Those platforms still serve as the floors of 2 existing cabins in the Middler Unit. Other surviving structures from the early years on Bear Island include the Dining Hall, built in 1923, and the cabin on the western shore, known as West Beach, which dates to lumber operations on the island in the decade before the camp's arrival. Camp Lawrence has continued to offer young boys summer camping opportunities on Bear Island since 1921. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「YMCA Camp Lawrence」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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