| The American Legion, Department of MD, believes
in supporting the development of youth. Toward
that end, the Western MD District of the Department
of Maryland developed a summer camp. Beginning
in November, 1959 at a meeting of the Western
MD District, it was agreed upon to hold a summer
camp for boys (ages 9 thru 12 years) on a trial
basis. Further, it was established that the
boys would be from financially depressed families,
broken families or be juvenile delinquents.
They would need to be recommended by either
their school principal, minister or social agency.
Boys would be selected from Carroll, Frederick,
and Washington Counties.
The first encampment was held in the summer
of 1960 with forty (40) boys in attendance.
The all-volunteer staff held the camp for one
week at Camp Summit near Emmitsburg, MD. That
first encampment was deemed a success and the
Western MD District decided to continue with
future encampments.
From 1960 thru 1971 various sites were used
for encampment; i.e., Camp Echo Lake, Camp Airy,
and Camp Summit. In 1972, camp was held for
two (2) weeks at the present site on Brown Road,
off Route 77 in the Catoctin Mountains. The
Western MD District later purchased this land
and went on to construct the camp, known today
as Camp West-Mar. To date, this site consists
of six cabins—one of which Post 223 took control
of in 2005—an Olympic size swimming pool with
bath house, rifle range, archery range, man-made
fishing pond, all-purpose court, mess hall,
ball field, outdoor chapel, and a pavilion.
Camp WestMar remains today as the only all volunteer
American Legion camp in the country.
For more information on eligibility requirements
and how to send a youth to Camp WestMar, contact
Sykesville Memorial Post No. 223 at 410-795-7242.
To download an application for Camp WestMar,
click here (requires Adobe PDF Reader).
|
