Renovated digs will greet kids when they arrive on Sunday

Summer camp. The warm breezes, rekindled friendships, nature hikes and now – air conditioning?

In the most sweeping renovation since Warner-Tully’s birth in 1960, the Vicksburg YMCA campground near Port Gibson is nearing completion of its most extensive update ever – including air conditioning in each camper cabin.

“It’s just for their comfort when they sleep,” said Casey “Big Chief” Custer, who is directing the summer camps for the ninth year. “We’ll still do all the activities we have in the past, but it will be more comfortable on the kids at night. It got oppressively hot in those cabins.”

After one of the camps last summer, a parent filled in the comment area on the camp survey offering to buy window units for the cabins. That comment started an $84,000 renovation of the camp in Claiborne County off U.S. 61 South. The YMCA hired a consultant who tours Y camps around the country, and the most pressing need was for air conditioners in the cabins.

Other improvements include:

Installing new windows and screens in the cabins.

Paneling and sealing inside cabin walls and painting cabin interiors.

New gravel for 75 camp roads and paths.

Also, Hinds Community College students built 18 new bunk beds at no charge except for material, and Custer reconfigured the cabins to allow for more interaction between the campers.

“National statistics have shown that campers don’t return each year because of fantastic camp directors, they come back because of the friendships,” Custer said. “We reconfigured the beds because we found that the kids were being separated into little pods. So we opened it up for all the kids to interact with each other.”

If you goThe YMCA Warner-Tully summer camp season begins Sunday with four one-week sessions for children ages 7-13. Cost is $285 per session. Registration forms are at the Purks YMCA on East Clay Street.The camp, open to children ages 7-13, will have four one-week sessions starting Sunday. Cost is $285 per session. The renovations, Custer said, have already shown a difference in numbers. As of mid-May, registrations were up 44 percent over last year.

Warner-Tully sits on 108 acres 22 miles south of Vicksburg and west of U.S. 61. This will be the first time in the camp’s nearly half-century of operation to have air conditioned cabins.

Can the big screen TVs and video game systems be far off?

“There will be no big screen TVs,” Custer said with a chuckle.