The Experience
Former President of Harvard University, Charles Eliot, once said, “I have a conviction that a few weeks spent in a well-organized summer camp may be of more value educationally than a whole year of formal school work.” Learn more about the summer camp experience here.
"My boys still talk about certain smells and memories from camp, as well as some of the staff that were especially impactful. We are forever grateful for C+CBSF’s scholarship to our family….Camp Mondamin is now in their bones, in their muscle memory and is a part of who they are."
- Dori Luke, Parent
The Impact
Programs Scholarship Recipients Attend
Green Cove - Tuxedo, NC
LA 35.213470 LO -82.429400
Green Cove started in 1945 at Camp Rockbrook in Brevard and operated there under the direction of Pat Bell, Chief’s daughter. In 1949, Green Cove moved to its present location, just around the bend from Mondamin. In 1952, Calla Bell became director and maintained this role until her daughter Nancy took over in 1980. Green Cove has a current capacity of 190 for each session with a staff of approximately 70, and offers a wide range of activities, including an extensive tripping program. Following in the footsteps of her grandmother Calla and aunt Nancy, Calla Bell Williamson is currently the director.
Mondamin - Tuxedo, NC
LA 35.223080 LO -82.426890
Chief first had the idea for Mondamin in March of 1922 and construction began on the dining hall in April. That summer Mondamin opened with 30 campers, a very inexperienced camp director and an equally inexperienced staff of 6. There were no buildings except the simple dining room and a wood stove kitchen. Campers and staff lived in tents and the eight-week fee was $150. The first activities were hiking, horseback riding, swimming and canoeing. After 100 years of operation, Mondamin can host 190 campers a session, the same activities are offered along with many more, and there is a staff of about 70. David Bell is the current director of Camp Mondamin. Previous directors include Frank Bell Sr. (aka Chief), Frank Bell Jr. and Andrew Bell.
1922
Year Founded
10
Scholarship Recipients in 2022
Other Camps
The majority of our applicants come to us by first applying to Camps Mondamin and Green Cove. Scholarship recipients most often attend these programs, however there are exceptions. In 2023, scholarship funds were awarded to nine campers registered to attend Mondamin. When Mondamin announced that it would not open for the upcoming season, the C+CBSF Scholarship Committee worked diligently to assist these families in reallocating funds (if desired) to similar programs to ensure their children could still have the Life Changing by Nature experience of summer camp. In 2023, C+CBSF reallocated funds for five campers to attend other similar summer camp programs.
Alumni Spotlight
“At camp we figured out what matters. Are you going to be a good citizen? Are you going to take care of yourself and look out for your friends?”
Scott Reed
Scott Reed was the fourth child born into a family that was well known in the small town where he grew up, Tupelo, MS. “We had the largest store in town,” he says. “So everybody knew who we were.” He had plenty of friends, but from his earliest memories, he wondered whether they liked him for who he was, or because of his family.
At 12, Scott spent his first summer at Mondamin. “I did not know a soul when I went up there,” he remembers. A guy named Doug Deaton picked him up from the airport, and he jumped in the back of a cattle truck with about 20 other kids. Scott was a tennis player, but most camp activities were new to him. He learned how to paddle and how to pitch a tent. Even more important, Scott learned he could make his own friends.”That was a huge thing for me,” he says. “I just had to learn to fend for myself. I had to learn to figure out what I was worth as a person.”
Scott spent a decade’s worth of summers at camp, first as a camper and then as a counselor. After that, he stopped in for a couple weeks every summer to offer tennis clinics and paddle the rivers. During that time, Scott learned to embrace the community values that have stood him well in life. “At camp we figured out what matters,” he says. “Are you going to be a good citizen? Are you going to take care of yourself and look out for your friends?”
Today, Scott still resides in Tupelo, where he helps run the investment firm he co-founded, Hardy Reed. The community values he honed at Mondamin have followed him into adulthood, and he now sits on more than a dozen boards, helping steward causes he cares about. Scott was one of the founding board members of the Chief and Calla Bell Scholarship Foundation in 1992, served for ten years and continues to be generous with his time. “I think one of the biggest challenges in the world today is figuring out how to become a positive part of your community,” says Scott. That’s what camp helped instill in him, and what he now hopes to instill in others.
