New Season Brings Bright Horizons Exciting Year Ahead in 2000! by Russell R. Grundke, Executive Director The 20th Century has come to a close. The past 100 plus years have presented The Hiram House with many challenges and opportunities. The various challenges have been acknowledged and met. The 21st Century now presents us with new challenges and opportunities. The Board of Trustees and Staff have helped the camp benefit from the past and are ready to face the future with excitement and enthusiasm. The trustees are rapidly moving forward with Hiram House 2000. The Master Plan has been approved. Architects and engineers have been selected. Committees have been formed to raise funds, start construction, and make the public aware of this comprehensive vision for a new Hiram House Camp. This concerted effort demonstrates our continuity, teamwork, allegiance, understanding and cooperation. The atmosphere around Hiram House is charged with much excitement, confidence and great expectations as we prepare to welcome campers for this new season. This endeavor and pervading mood will carry The Hiram House well into the 21st Century. I would like to thank all who are presently committed to Hiram House 2000. Your efforts are greatly appreciated. You are assuring our youth an experience that they will always remember and from which they will benefit immeasurably.
	National Renowned Cleveland Architectural Firm Selected to Design New Camp Facilities. First of New Structures to be Sponsored by Trustees
The Cleveland architectural, landscape and environmental planning firm of Schmidt Copeland Parker Stevens, a nationally recognized expert in the design of camps, education and recreation facilities throughout the country, has been selected to represent Hiram House 2000. The team will be led by Richard T. Parker, AIA, Project Principal, and Mark E. Benton, CSI, Project Manager, and will work in collaboration with Architect Ray DelaMotte, Jr. Also retained was the civil engineering and land-surveying firm of William R. Gray Associates Inc. to conduct detailed site feasibility studies and soil tests for the project, led by Terry Gerson, Project Principal. Among the new structures planned will be year-round log cabins, the first of which will be built later this year and be sponsored by The Hiram House Board of Trustees. Other new or renovated facilities include: outdoor education classrooms, new dining hall, multi-purpose building, renovation of the outdoor swimming pool and all living quarters, plus a variety of other new programs and facilities. A preview of the Hiram House 2000 master plan was presented at a Community Forum in February.
Summer Camp Open House Saturday, March 18 Registration & Information
Hiram House will operate Resident Camp (overnight), Junior Day Camp, and Day Camp for the 2000 season. Visit the March 18 Open House at Hiram House to register for Summer Camp 2000. Resident Camp - for children ages 6-13, starts June 18 & ends July 28. Junior Day Camp - ages 5-6, starts June 19 & ends July 28, with a daily schedule of 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Day Camp - for ages 5-11, starts June 19 & ends August 4, with a daily schedule of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. A spring Open House for all three Summer Camp programs is scheduled at Hiram House on Saturday, March 18, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Storer Foundation Awards $10,000 Grant to Develop Challenge Program at Hiram House Dedicated in Memory of Former Staff Member Ruth Garay
Ruth Garay believed in Hiram House Camp and in its A Climbing Tower will be one of the new outdoor elements featured in the camp's Challenge Program. mission to broaden the horizons of area youth. The camp's former administrative assistant and Cleveland native even set aside proceeds from her estate to benefit the 103-year-old youth organization when she died in 1995. Upon her retirement in 1986 she had given over fifteen years of dedicated service to Hiram House. She also served as a Hiram House Trustee during the period following her retirement until her death. Prior to coming to Hiram House, however, Ms. Garay had been a long-time staff member of Storer Broadcasting in Cleveland, then owner of the former WJW-850AM radio station, now WRMR, and Channel 8 TV. Now, her former employer seeks to honor her memory and keep alive her commitment to the children of Northeast Ohio. The George B. Storer Foundation has awarded a $10,000 grant to The Hiram House as a tribute to Ms. Garay to help develop the camp's Challenge and Adventure Program. Planned for later this summer, the program will feature a variety of new outdoor elements that will help teach leadership, self-confidence, and self-esteem, as well as team-building and interpersonal skills. According to James P. Storer, former General Manager of Storer Broadcasting's WJW and Vice President of its Radio Division, now Secretary and Trustee of the George B. Storer Foundation, Inc., who worked with Ms. Garay during the 1960's and 70's, "Ruth was a dedicated, loyal employee who put forth much time and effort to help us develop as a top-rated station in Cleveland. The Storer Foundation is very pleased to be supportive of worthwhile area organizations and constructive programs like these at Hiram House that benefit so many." Hiram House Executive Director Russell R. Grundke said, "The Challenge Program, in Ruth's memory, will be one of the tools necessary to encourage the promotion of personal growth and self-awareness in the youth of the 21st century. Through such cooperative efforts, young people will learn to develop trust and insight - skills that are paramount in the positive development of our youth."
Hiram House Welcomes Northeast Ohio Students During Annual School Camps
Hundreds of elementary and middle school students from districts throughout the Greater Cleveland area and surrounding counties visit Hiram House Camp each year as part of our outdoor educational programs. This spring, among the new school groups the camp will host, will be students from Cardinal Schools in Middlefield in Geauga County. Pictured here are students from Mentor Schools who visited during the past two seasons ('98-'99) and plan to return this fall.
Campership Fund Sends Kids to Camp Alcoa, Meyer Co., Christian & Timbers Lend Support for 2000
The Hiram House Camp officials announced that in 1999 over $200,000 was donated by Greater Cleveland corporations, foundations, organizations, individuals, and Hiram House trustees to enable scores of Northeast Ohio area youths, who would otherwise not have the opportunity, to attend summer camp last year. The camp now is seeking support for its annual Campership Fund for 2000 to benefit area children during this year's camping season. The 2000 Campership Fund already has received a generous boost with over $6,500 in donations and support from several Cleveland firms, including the Alcoa Foundation, a division of the Aluminum Company of America, and the Meyer Company. Christian & Timbers, a national executive search firm with local offices based in Beachwood, plans to sponsor their Second Annual Run & Walk for Hiram House Camp, on August 19, with a course running through Beachwood and Shaker Heights. Last year's event raised $7,000 to benefit the Campership Fund. Camperships, plus partial funding from the United Way, help many young people in need enjoy the benefits of camping each year at Hiram House.
A Lesson in History from Frank C.Van Cleef
Boys riding see saw at camp, circa 1902. by Nancy A. Schneider, President Editorial Communications, a company specializing in writing histories of local companies and schools, who is working on a profile of the history of Hiram House Camp. Throughout its history, Hiram House has been blessed with devoted, talented staff. Around 1902, when Frank C. Van Cleef was 21, he became Hiram House Athletic Director - which, of course, put him in charge of the "Fresh Air Camp". During the years 1903 to 1906 he kept a diary in lilting script that changed in evidence of his moods. Amazingly, the camp program was run very similarly to the program today...and they faced many of the same problems. Children had to be recommended by a social agency and the most common reason, in those days was "no father in residence." Some came to camp from the "Hudson's Boys Farm." Others came through the kindness of those who worked at the camp, as in 1905...one worker brought three children (of eight in one family)... "They are not even old enough to work but in dire need of care." Not all were happy to come, nor did they agree with Van Cleef's schedule of work from 5 a.m. to noon, and Van Cleef noted, "Some days I had to work with my mouth as hard as with my hands." Some got homesick and didn't like the food. But most came around to Van Cleef's way of thinking. One girl?s constant fighting left him no choice but to send her home early. A letter came a few days later...a "letter of repentance on her own initiative" begging for a chance to return the following summer. Told she could return if she promised to be good, she began "to lay aside money with which to come...and she saved sixty cents which paid for her carfare and one week at camp and she kept her promise to behave." Money was a concern for campers then, as it is today, when 94% of the residential campers receive some kind of sponsorship. Van Cleef's approach was straightforward: "Dear Mr.____ , Do you plan to take a vacation this summer? Spend a few weeks away for a change? Send your family out of the city for most of the summer? Well, I'm in the vacation business. I'm giving 40 children a vacation out in the woods now and every two weeks I bring 40 more out. I thought if you knew about this work, your company would be glad to help us out a little." Time Passes - but some things never change.
Meet Our Trustees:
Weden & Sue Spence Weden & Sue Spence by Christopher A. Vasco, Vasco Communications For long-time Hiram House Trustees Weden and Sue Spence, the essence of the Hiram House experience is summed up by something they witnessed back in the mid-1980's - a simple hug. "It was after lunch at the end of the week, and the buses were gathering to take a group of urban kids back home. Two cute little guys said they didn't want to leave until they got a chance to see the woman who had planned their menus for the week. She soon came out of the kitchen, got down on her knees to talk with them, and the kids ran up to her and hugged her. For a week they had been fed well, with good, solid meals, and it meant so much to those two kids. But that day was the most meaningful thing in the world to us, too," the Spences said. When it comes to life, Weden and Sue Spence are truly a team in every sense of the word. Through their marriage. Through their professional careers. Through their hobbies. And, through their long-time devotion to Hiram House Camp. The couple married in 1950, and soon after, Weden Spence began a 37-year career in Industrial Sales by joining what would eventually-become the Woodward-Spence Co. The bookkeeper there? Sue Spence. Always interested in the outdoors - such as sailing, skiing and even vacationing in a log cabin in Michigan - the young couple looked for a country setting to raise their young family. And, as fate would have it, in 1953 they settled in Moreland Hills, just a street away from Hiram House Camp. By the mid-1960's, Weden and Sue Spence had joined the Hiram House Board of Trustees, and Sue Spence became active in the former Hiram House Women's Board (also serving as its president), working together for more than 20 years on a variety of volunteer projects and fund-raisers which helped make Hiram House what it is today. And, even though by the late 1980's, both began winding down their "official" involvement with Hiram House, (Sue Spence is still a trustee, while Weden Spence is an "Honorary" trustee), certainly neither has lost their love for the camp. "The plans in place to renovate the camp are important," the Spences said. "Some kids don't have much and Hiram House Camp is truly a breath of fresh air for them and can help turn their lives around. We need to fix up the camp by putting some money into it so more kids can have that same experience, like those two little ones who gave 'the hug'."
Hiram House Today - Spring 2000 Vol. 1 No. 2 Editor: K.M. Bourland Communications Web Design: ColorBar Media Group
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