From the Director’s Desk – Fretting About Change 

Three Sundays ago, I spent most of a two-hour drive fretting about how to break the news that Raganeau’s original cabins, a dearly loved group of four small structures overlooking the mouth of Phantom Canyon, were demolished two days before.  My coworkers and I take turns posting on social media. I’m in charge of Sundays. My wife graded papers in the passenger seat. Our youngest daughter, still dressed in her volleyball uniform and sweats, dozed in the backseat. I don’t recall much of the two-hour drive from Owensboro, Ky., back to Camp, but I remember my thoughts.   

Raganeau’s cabins were built in 1972.  I never stayed there as a camper.  I was in the unit of Amantacha my first year in the early 1980s. Its original cabins were identical to Raganeau’s – narrow duplexes with bunks opposite each other. For the next four or five summers, I chose the A-frame cabins of Daniel, Goupil, Garnier, and Lalemant. During my camper years, Raganeau, like Ahatsistari and Teondechoren, were often occupied by kids who rode the bus or for other reasons didn’t arrive early enough to choose one of the units with newer, more spacious cabins. Then, in 1988 or so, Michelle (Kreppert) Bretscher was assigned to be a Girls’ Season Unit Leader. According to her, it was punishment for breaking the rules. To many campers, Raganeau’s distance from the main area certainly felt like punishment. According to Michelle, the unit’s counselors kicked off a session by helping the kids rip off the sleeves of their unit T-shirts after some complained about the heat. That move, and numerous mildly rebellious unit decisions to follow, rebranded Raganeau – in my mind, at least.  

Pati Egan, one of Camp’s most prolific historians, credits Michelle with turning the unit into the “cool” place to be.  Michelle brushes away that notion.  She points to “Deuker, Franci, Suzy,” and other counselors for engineering the transformation during that summer and those that followed. It was during this time that the iconic cheer beginning with, “Way back in the woods, where nobody goes, there’s a big bad unit called Raganeau,” was created. It wills every listener to know, feel, and believe in Raganeau, despite its cramped, rickety cabins. Tim Eiserle, a former Ondessonk Executive Director used to say, “there’s a fine line between rustic and run-down.” The old cabins of Raganeau crossed that line long ago. We loved it anyway. Everyone can relate. 

I was a member of Raganeau’s unit staff for two or three weeks of boys’ season in 1988.  My personal experiences are limited, but I know it’s a special place. Jimbo Dennis was our Unit Leader.  William Cook and Ed Beazley were also members of our unit staff. It really does somehow feel different than the other units at Camp Ondessonk. Darker, quieter, and everything that comes with it. In daylight, God’s presence permeates the space. In the dark of night, its spookiness occasionally forces prayer. I talked with Jim Dennis a few days after the cabins came down.  He saw the demolition photos on social media. His reaction: “It’s so strange. It’s just a hillside now.” God willing, five new cabins will adorn that hillside for another group of Rag Rats on Sunday, May 31. 

Please keep your Camp and its campers in your life for the rest of your life. 

Sincerely, 

Learn more about Camp Ondessonk’s History.