Valarie Stevenson and Patricia Harris took the boat out on the water for sightseeing. Stevenson reminisced on how the water gives her peace now, a feeling that originated from her childhood at Camp Parsons.

Story and photos by Azhae’la Hanson, Reporter

The Phyllis Wheatley Center brought a busload of people in June to Camp Parsons for a day to return to their youth and rejuvenate in the stillness of nature.

For more than two decades, the camp has been inactive and overgrown. In recent years, board members, staff, and community members have been working to change that.

The Phyllis Wheatley Community Center is raising money to reopen Camp Parsons, the predominantly African American-run and attended camp that operated from the 1950s to the early 2000s and became a staple for Northside youth to experience nature and the outdoors, often for the first time.

The center organized tours by former campers eager to show other attendees their favorite spots.

Tales about a kid who lit fires and a daughter taking a fall in the bog made everyone chuckle throughout the day.

**Kitt Young-Douglas walks across what campers knew as ‘The Dip’, a narrow bridge over shallow water that has claimed a few campers with unsteady legs.**

Near the end, everyone gathered around a campfire to share oral histories highlighting the camp's significance.

“I grew up at Camp Parsons. It was something to do other than being in the streets, teaching you something different, you know, knowing something different, “I was out here in this wilderness, and I found myself,” said camp alumni Tammy Young Crockett. She began attending day camp programming when she was 5, but her family took her every summer since she was a newborn. When she was too old for camp programs, she became a counselor.

Several, like Crocket, became counselors out of a deep affection for the camp. Phyllis Wheatley staff say this is a testament to how the camp is a generational treasure. They Hope to bring it back for generations to come.

**Former campgoer Valarie Stevenson stands by a former lunch hall and looks at the campgrounds. She was a camper in 1981’ and then went on to become a camp counselor as a teenager.**

**Two former campers stand in an old multipurpose room overlooking the water. The two recollected using the space for arts and crafts.**

Valarie Stevenson went through the now creaky buildings once full of life. She smiled at an old bell that used to ring sweetly in the background of her camp activities.

“People deserve to make memories here like we did,” she said.

So far, the camp has received $550,000 for design work. Once they receive a design concept, they can determine the cost of the camp renewal. In the meantime, Camp Parsons offered four-day programs this summer that explored the Mississippi River for youth ages 9-12.

Click here for more information on the Camp Parsons restoration project.

Wheatley Center wants to create new generations of happy campers