The camp had closed last summer because of financial problems.
The beach on Russell Pond near the Horace Moses Boys Scout Camp will be improved as part of an effort to upgrade the Horace A. Moses Reservation.Overnight Boy Scout camp will return to the Horace A. Moses Reservation after volunteers pledged to make the program solvent this year.
Scouts who return will see a change at the reservation in Russell. A new rappelling tower is under construction, the beach will be improved and most staff will be volunteers instead of paid employees.
“It is being run by 90 percent volunteer leadership so that is helping a tremendous amount,” said Larry A. Bystran, Scout executive and chief executive officer for the Pioneer Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
Last year’s announcement that the camp, which offered week-long programs, would close because it had amassed a $90,000 deficit, was met with anger by Scout leaders, Boy Scouts and alumni.
After learning financial problems were spread throughout the council but pronounced at the camp, volunteers launched an effort to save money and raise funds.
“There are a lot of initiatives to pull the council back together,” said Henry P. Lenart, of Pepperell, a Chicopee native who camped Moses Reservation as a child.
He created Friends of the Moses Scout Reservation last January to save the camp.
“A lot of people stepped up and we are working on the council financing and we are looking at the (reservation) facility to modernize and take it to the next level,” Lenart said.
In July, the camp will offer two weeks of overnight camps to Boy Scouts and about 150 students have signed up for each week. The camp can handle twice that number, but many troops committed to attend other camps, before learning Moses would open, he said.
The cost is $295 for a week-long camp for each scout. For those who choose to stay for a second week, the charge drops to $270, he said.
Since the only paid staff will be the cooks, the camp should easily break even. Tuition money will be spent on equipment, supplies, insurance and utilities, he said.
At the same time the group is responding to complaints from Scouts who said the camp needs modernization. It is building a 50-foot rappelling tower and improving the beach front, he said.
Most of the work is being done by volunteers, including Boy Scouts, but they must raise money to purchase materials. Western Massachusetts Electric Co. donated two oversized utility poles for the tower and the remaining cost is $7,000. Waterfront improvements are estimated at $6,500, Lenart said.
The Friends is selling bricks with names etched on them to help pay for the improvements. They will be placed with landscaping on the beach, he said.
Michael Kirby, an assistant Scout master for Troop 90 in Longmeadow and a member of Friends of Moses, said improving the camp is vital because some camps were offering better programs.
“It is a Catch 22. To get people to go to camp it has to look good but you need the money from people going to camp to make it look good,” he said.
The camp closing also alerted leaders to the fact the council was struggling financially and measures had to be taken to improve the finances.
The Council’s board of directors has so far held an auction and a fund-raiser where volunteers collected sponsors to rappel off a hotel in downtown Springfield.
“People wanted to know how could these things happen without people knowing about it. Why did they have to wait to the point where they were closing the camp. It was a strong wake-up call,” he said
People realized if the council proved insolvent then all the property would be liquidated, including the camp, he said.
Bystran, the executive director, agreed. The poor economy meant reduced grants and donations. At the same time, more children needed help paying camp fees.
Programs such as Cub Scout day camp and overnight Venture Camp for teenagers remained at the Moses Reservation, but the Boy Scout camp operation could not continue to run in the red, he said.
“It was more financial than anything because of the subsidy level. The camping operation was not paying for itself,” he said.
The council is improving financially. A anonymous donor gave them cut-rate lease to rent offices in Westfield, allowing them to sell the council-owned offices in Chicopee. One of the five field executives was also laid off.
At the same time donations have been increasing, he said.
Bystran thanked the army of volunteers who are helping to restore the camp.
“We go through a strategic planning operation every two years and we will be looking at the success of this summer and project forward to see what we need to change and to do to keep the ball rolling,” he said.