Mackey explained that they also maintain their
good status ahead of assumptions and complaints by regularly sending out camp details. Te camp shares the schedule to notify neighbors ahead of time about planned disruptions, and they follow up aſterward with information about any unplanned disruptions that may have occurred. Caraway Conference Center and Camps (Sophia,
North Carolina) shares a border with an active firing range. Senior director Jimmy Huffman believes that sending out these kinds of communications helps stay ahead of complaints and also acts as a gesture to bridge connections with his neighbors. “It’s about mutual respect and communication,”
Huffman shared about his relationship with the gun range owner. “I’ve said, ‘We have a thousand acres, but that sound just carries and disrupts what we’re trying to do.’” Huffman said the range owner understood that and said, “I can work with that; just give me plenty of lead time.” Huffman shared, “He does the same for us if he’s having an event. For example, if the Sheriff’s Department is going to do a night-fire, he lets me know a couple of days ahead.”
Being the second-largest landowner in Randolph
County, North Carolina, Caraway boasts a 1,100-acre campus. “I tell folks we’re a ‘Baptist State Park,’” Huffman laughed. Given this geographical promi- nence in the community, Huffman recently found himself as a spokesperson on behalf of his neighbors. “The county wanted to build a Dollar General store about a mile down the road, and the neighbors didn’t want it because they felt it didn’t belong there,” he said. “They rallied together and came to me saying, ‘You’ve got to help us fight this.’” Tough Huffman wasn’t against the store, he went
before the county commissioners and spoke on behalf of his neighbors. In the end, the commissioners heeded Huffman’s request to help the store blend with the environment by planting trees and landscaping the area nicely. Peter Swiſt, executive director at Camp Susque
(Trout Run, Pennsylvania), found himself in a unique position to leverage his facilities when his community experienced devastating floods. Swiſt quoted Jeremiah 29:7, “Seek the Shalom of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in the Shalom of it shall you have Shalom.” He continued, “As camps, we’re uniquely positioned to serve the cities around us. Seek the health of your city, not just the health of your camp.”
“Once you have a relationship, you have a context from which you can wrestle through and deal with tensions in a healthy way.” — Ron Mackey, executive director of Deerfoot Lodge Adirondacks (Speculator, New York)
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www.ccca.org November/December 2025
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