Conservation Camps

Kids just think it’s summer fun, but camps can start careers and change lives

By Carolyn Hughes Lynn

They came from farms, suburban homes, and all walks of life from across the state. One earned the Navy Cross. Another coached his team into the NCAA basketball tournament. A third is heard by thousands of people each day. Another is an environmental troubadour who has opened for some of country music’s biggest stars.

All have something in common: As youths, they attended summer conservation camps operated by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

Barry Enoch was one of those kids. Later in life, he would dive under the Arctic ice, become an initial member of the SEALs – the U.S. Navy’s Special Forces team – and win one of the military’s highest honors.

Conservation camp and Enoch’s natural interests proved a good match. “I couldn’t play basketball and I wasn’t much of a football player, but I did love to swim,” Enoch said.

Enoch got all the swimming he wanted while working as a lifeguard one summer at Camp John W. Currie on Kentucky Lake . It’s a story that became camp legend.

Enoch, a teenager at the time, wanted to try a 10-mile endurance swim on the lake. Another lifeguard and Doug Travis, the camp’s waterfront director, joined him.

The swimmers coated themselves in Vaseline to keep warm, and then plunged into the water at 4 a.m. while two people followed in a rowboat. The other lifeguard couldn’t make the entire swim. Travis and Enoch emerged from the lake six hours and 40 minutes later.

That test of mettle helped Enoch decide his future. “Being involved in water safety at camp had a major influence on my life,” he said. “I thought about it years later – that’s what put me in the business I was in, in the Navy.”

“Barry was a tremendous swimmer when he left Kentucky to join the navy,” Travis said.

Camp instructors taught more than just swimming, archery, boating, outdoor survival skills, gun safety and fishing. They taught leadership and lifelong lessons. “People like Doug Travis and the other conservation officers don’t just mold you into good swimmers,” Enoch said. “They mold you into human beings.”

Enoch depended on those leadership skills while serving in the Navy during the Vietnam War. He won the Navy Cross for actions taken one morning in South Vietnam ’s Mekong Delta.

Enoch, four American SEALs and 10 of their South Vietnamese counterparts found themselves encircled by a company of 80-120 enemy troops during a raid. During the ensuing firefight, Enoch directed American planes to blast a hole through the enemy’s position then led his troops to an escape.

Only one of Enoch’s soldiers was killed. Enoch learned he’d been nominated for the Navy Cross after attending the soldier’s funeral.

Today, twice retired, as chief gunner’s mate and Oregon firefighter, Enoch lives northeast of Nashville in Lafayette , Tenn. He serves as vice chairman of the local Quail Unlimited chapter and teaches hunter education courses for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

From camper to college basketball coach

Another former camper is Mississippi State University basketball coach Rick Stansbury, whose team has won the SEC championship and played into the NCAA tournament. Stansbury attended Camp Earl Wallace as a boy, and then worked as a counselor and lifeguard at Camp Currie while a college student.

Although Stansbury’s schedule keeps him out of the woods during deer and turkey season, he always manages to squeeze in some fishing time at a lake near his home. “I like to fish for largemouth bass,” he said. “It’s my main hobby, and keeps things in perspective.”

Stansbury understands the importance of conservation education. He even carried his baby son into the woods to absorb its sights and sounds. “Kids need the opportunity to experience nature,” said Stansbury. “Many take it for granted or don’t understand it.”

A 1999 study of Kentucky high school students underscores the value of conservation education. Students who attended both conservation class and camp continued to participate in the hunting-fishing sports to a larger degree than students who attended class but not camp. Students who didn’t participate in either were the least involved in outdoor pursuits.

Summer conservation camps, which first opened in 1945, initially were available only to boys ages 9-16. Girls began attending the camps in 1955. By the early 1960s, the school-camp program focused on fifth and sixth graders. Camps, which are open from June to early August, now offer co-ed programs several weeks during the season. Around 6,000 Kentucky schoolchildren (ages 10-13) attend conservation camp each summer.

In addition to Camp Currie , the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources operates Camp Earl Wallace on Lake Cumberland , near Monticello ; and Camp Robert C. Webb on Grayson Lake , near Grayson.

Camper becomes radio star  

A Lexington girl went to camp because of Buck Shimfessel, the uniformed conservation leader who came to her school. “He was so professional and kind. I wanted to be like him,” Cindi Sullivan recalled.

Sullivan, the farm and garden director for WHAS radio in Louisville , is heard by thousands of people each day.

Sullivan convinced several friends that a week at Camp Wallace would be fun, and they weren’t disappointed. “The counselors were entertaining and knowledgeable.

The week goes fast because of all the activities and fun,” said Sullivan. “Part of the fun was making new friends on my own, away from home.”

For the first time, Sullivan shot a bow, guns, and tried to operate a motorboat. “I was a miserable failure at the boats,” she said, “but the first time my arrow nicked the target I was hooked.”

Even then, Sullivan was interested in green things. “Hiking the woods was my favorite,” she said. “Whether we realize it or not, we all have a connection with plants.”

Sullivan went on to graduate from the University of Kentucky with a degree in agriculture. She is also a certified Kentucky nurseryman and arborist.

Camper becomes songwriter

Camp magnetized a Carlisle County boy and set him on a pathway to simultaneous careers. Dale Crider, a retired biologist and environmental musician, has appeared onstage with Tom T. Hall, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, John Hartford and others.

Crider, who now lives in Florida , said his first stage was the flat hood of a jeep at Camp Currie . Crider reveled in the outdoors, but had no idea anyone could make a living in wildlife work until he met Doug Travis at camp. “He was a magic person,” Crider said.

In a few years, he would not be mimicking other artists, but composing and recording his own bluegrass/ballad-style music with environmental themes. “Singing renews a certain spirit,” he said. “It’s part of what we need.”

Crider worked 30 years as a duck biologist and environmental specialist with Florida ’s fish and wildlife agency. Now he teaches 25 environmental workshops every year in parks and youth camps for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Project WILD, a national resource program for schoolteachers, adopted one of Crider’s songs, and even provides signing for the deaf and a brochure to explain the lyrics.

Camper becomes key leader at Kentucky Fish and Wildlife

As a boy growing up in Washington County , Tom Young used to watch Canada geese fly overhead and wonder where they were going.

Summer conservation camp naturally appealed to Young, if he could only raise the money it cost to go. “I mowed yards and did all kinds of things to save for the camp fee,” he said.

“I had never been to any camp,” Young remembered. “The trip was an experience in itself, and Kentucky Lake looked like an ocean. It was fun earning patches. After camp I knew I wanted to work for fish and wildlife.” 

Young graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a degree in wildlife biology. While working on a master’s degree, a conservation education position opened in Hazard, Ky. , and Young jumped at the chance. Eventually, Young became manager of Ballard Wildlife Management Area. He finally saw where those geese were going.

Young, who became deputy commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources in 1985, has since retired. “I achieved my goal in life when I was hired in Hazard,” he said. ”Everything else has been gravy.”

Enoch, Stansbury, Sullivan, Crider and Young all credit their time at youth camp as a positive turning point in their lives. How many future life successes will be sparked this summer at conservation camp?