The Cincinnati Enquirer
Thursday, July 8, 1982

Fort Scott
A place to grow forever young

By Matt Moffett
The Cincinnati Enquirer

It is not the Fountain of Youth suddenly bubbling forth from the banks of
the Great Miami River. Nor has Peter Pan packed his camping gear and flown
off to New Baltimore.

But sometimes you get the feeling there is something very special about
Fort Scott Summer Camp. Something almost magical.

"I had an old counselor who used to tell me that Fort Scott was like a
fantasy land," says Scott Brauch, head boys' camp counselor. "I mean, you
come through those gates and leave all time and all the problems of the
outside world behind you."

And since 1922, when those gates opened for the first time, thousands of
children have left the "outside world" to discover that fantasy land for
themselves. Every summer, about 2,000 children descend upon Fort Scott's
5,000 acres during five two-week camp sessions.

For many of the 7- to 15-year-olds, it is their first opportunity to live
in rural surroundings and engage in such pleasures as horseback riding,
hiking and swimming. Fort Scott is just a half hour west of Cincinnati,
but addresses from throughout the Tristate and everywhere from Chicago to
Atlanta dot the enrollment roster.

Fort Scott, operated by the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati, is
celebrating its 60th anniversary with an alumni reunion day Saturday. All
former campers and counselors are welcome to attend and relive the summers
of their youth.

Fort Scott, incidentally, has more than a few notable alumni.  They
include Pittsburgh Steelers football coach Chuck Noll, television newsman
Al Schottelkotte, 1950s television star Dean Miller and Hamilton County
assistant prosecutor Arthur Ney Jr., to name just a few.

But the Fort Scott experience is just as meaningful to those who have
walked out of the gates of the camp to live the rest of their lives in
relative obscurity -- those who never collected a Super Bowl ring or never
starred on television or in the courtroom.

"It's almost like a fraternity," says Dr. C. Richard Schroder, who has
been the camp physician for "at least 30 years."

"Everyone who has ever been here -- even if they've never met before --
can sit down and talk about their experiences as though they were old
friends. If you've been here, you understand."

Some of those experiences include activities that you would find at any
summer camp -- baseball, campfires, craft programs, ghost stories, and, of
course, poison ivy.

But the real value of Fort Scott transcends games and good times.

For many children, Fort Scott was not just a place to spend a couple of
weeks of their summer vacation. It was the place where their childhoods
happened.

"I've never spent a summer anywhere else," says Suzie Dunn, a former
camper who is now a counselor for the girls' camp. "It kind of gets in
your blood. You get addicted to it. And when I see these kids running and
playing, well, it reminds me of me."

Her case is not unusual. Almost all of the camp counselors and staff are
former campers who have come back for one more summer in Never Never Land.

Of course, for some counselors and campers, what draws them back to Fort
Scott is not so much a romance with the great outdoors as it is, well... a
romance.

"Whenever any of the kids come in here to work with me, I make sure to
remind them that many people have met their future wives and husbands
here," says Schroder with a sly grin. "I tell them that as a warning."

It is a "warning" they would do well to heed. The Fort Scott alumni
committee has found that at least 178 marriages have their roots in the
summer camping sessions.

The relationship between the sexes is not always so cordial, however.

If you talk to the "midget" females, ages 7 through 9, you find out that
the boys in the camp are "yuk." As the girls grow to be "juniors," ages 10
through 12, the boys are generally characterized as "gross."

Ah, but by the time the girls become "seniors," the 13 through 15 age
group, a miraculous change has been affected.

"The boys?" says one of the senior girls. "You mean our boys? They're
terrific."

And so it has been for 60 years -- from Popeye to Pac-man, from Shirley
Temple to Brooke Shields.

Everything has changed. But nothing is different.

"A boy came in just the other day and he was pretty banged up and crying
because he needed stitches," says Schroder. "Well, I told him to calm down
because I'd done the same operation for both of my uncles when they were
camping here many years ago. And they turned out fine."

It was many years ago. It was just the other day. It is forever.