The YWCA had always relied on the kindness of strangers and the help of volunteers. Without them, Camp Maqua would have never existed or survived. Many grateful young girls whose families could not afford to send them off to camp were on the receiving end of the generosity and kindness of such people, sponsoring sessions to camp. Applicants were interviewed by the committee and chosen from the many requests, which sometimes included foster children.

Minutes from the camp committee mentioned in June 1936 that the President of the Exchange Club promised to send one girl to camp for two weeks. Another club, Zeta Rho, sent a girl to camp in 1943, paying $30. The same year a total of $110 was donated from various men’s clubs in the Bay City area.

The Rosenbury Furniture Company donated $500 in 1944, Ladies of United Commercial Travel in 1957, the Bay City Women’s Club, Kiwanis and other fraternal organizations took the camp under their wing as their project. Rummage sales, an “April Showers” list to choose from and private donors each year raised money to send an “underprivileged” girl to Camp Maqua.

Mary Jo Stegall, who had camped from 1939-41, remembered many of the prominent families, committee members and benefactors to the camp. The Otto Sovereign family of Aladdin Homes, Mr. Earl Perry, Adele Macauley’s daughter Pat, the Foss family, Frank and Sybil Johnson, Lee and Kitty Hudson, Charles Coryell, Ben Calvin and Don Rayburn were some of the kind donors of time and money. Many of the names can be seen as committee members and volunteers in the ledgers and minutes.

“I always admired the girls who had been there for many years,” said Sue West (1975). “One girl couldn’t afford to come one year and they raised the money to get her back. I can remember she used to sing this hilarious song—Elvis Presley’s “Black Cat” and they would all clap and holler to get her to sing that song.”

“One summer there was a girl named Beth from Bay City who had come many summers, but could not afford to stay the rest of the summer. It was my job to convince a person at the “Y” to give her the scholarship. The problem was she had a big Husky dog named Nikko who had to be with her. I guess her parents said if the dog stayed home, she had to stay home too. I had to beg and beg, but I got her the rest of the summer with that dog,” said Rhonda Thayer, business manager during the summers of 1974-77.

Cheryl Short was twelve years old in 1964 when she was selected for a scholarship to attend camp. The second oldest in a family of seven, she had no idea how she won it, “but I was thrilled to go to camp and have all the attention on me,” said Cheryl, who had worked very hard as a young girl taking care of her siblings. “I was expected to be a junior Mom and housekeeper. I never got to play independently. I was always walking a baby stroller or had a sibling in tow. I never got to do anything by myself.” Cheryl worried about who would help her Mom and remembered feeling guilty when she was having fun at camp.

“We were like a big family at camp”, said 1958 camper Diane Dudley, who said the older kids looked after the younger kids. “There was a lot of protectiveness. One girl, who had been in trouble with the law and had been at some halfway house, came up on a scholarship. Her life was turned around up there. I think everyone was nice to her and it may have been the first time she ever felt that.”

“There were camperships where kids who were minorities or from the inner city would receive free summer camp,” said counselor Kathy Carney (1970). “I remember one African American girl who walked down to the lake, looked around and exclaimed “That is the biggest pool I have ever seen! Where is the plug for that pool and how big is it?” For us and for her it was a wonderful exposure to a place we had never seen before.”

Were you on the receiving end of a scholarship or campership and what did it mean to you?