As many of you know, it is emotionally painful to put an animal down. The pet that you spent so many years with was beloved, truly a member of your family. You knew that incurable illness had taken its course and something had to be done.
You owed it to that animal, to you, and your whole family. Even so, that never lessened the emotional heft — your companion was no more. That’s the way I’ve felt with the sale of Camp Dittmer.
That longtime Boy Scout camp, located in Phelps in the Finger Lakes region, was sold earlier this week. For more than 60 years, that beautiful property served as a summer camp for thousands of scouts from the Iroquois Trail Council (and its predecessor, the Lewiston Trail Council), as well as scouts from literally all over the world. I was one of those scouts.
And, I was one of those who had to make the difficult decision to sell the camp. I had been the president of the board of the Iroquois Trail Council for almost 10 years and I knew for most of my tenure that moving that property was inevitable. Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t escape the harsh reality of upstate New York’s changing demographics and population.
As school enrollments declined dramatically, the number of scouts did as well; there are fewer kids in the community to serve. Just look at the 20-year declines in some school districts in the council’s territory: Albion, 35%; Medina, 34%; Roy-Hart, 32%; and Lockport, 25%. But being reasoned and reasonable, knowing the end h.
