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New camp will offer community and families a place to reconnect

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What was once home to a Boy Scout troop will now serve youth - and adults - again as early as the end of October.

Camp McDaniel, which was created out of Hicks Grove Baptist Church, is named for Richard McDaniel, who donated the land to the church with a vision that it would continue to serve youth just as it had when Boy Scout Troop 999 met there.

McDaniel proposed the idea of the camp to Hicks Grove pastor, the Rev. Don McIntyre, just after McIntyre began as an interim pastor at the church.

"He invited me to visit him and said, 'The Lord told me you were sent here to fulfill what I want to do with this property.'"

McIntyre was at first resistant, stating he hadn't planned to stay for the longterm at Hicks Grove. God, he said, had other plans and so began the work to form the camp, which is its own non-profit organization separate from the church.

"For a year and a half now we've been working on the legalities and now we have begun construction," he said.

As McIntyre prayed over the camp, he said the Lord told him to build it without incurring debt. What seemed impossible has been overwhelming, he explained.

"I stood one morning before the congregation and said 'I want to build 10 cabins.' Within 22 minutes, those 10 cabins were paid for."

There has been amazing participation from the community, he continued. A trucking company hauled stone for free, another company provided grading equipment for use as long as needed at no cost.

A building on the property that was once the Scout Hut will serve as the camp's office, and a house that was built but never lived in will become the home for the camp caretaker.

While other Christian camps focus primarily on children, Camp McDaniel will focus on families, McIntyre explained. Marriage and parenting retreats will be held on site, and in the long-term, McIntyre said he sees the camp as being a location for children's homes.

"We will have a dining hall that will seat 300," McIntyre said, gesturing to a graded part of the property. "There is a basketball court and four softball fields planned."

Areas near the campers cabins has been designated as wildlife feeding areas, and the area will be seeded as such.

Recently some women stopped by the camp, McIntyre continued, to see what work was being done.

"They asked if they could come here to walk, and we said, of course. Now, they won't have to go all the way to Cowpens to walk."

The camp will be open for the community to use for picnicking and fellowship, McIntyre said.

"I really want the community to take ownership," he said. "I want people in this community to feel like 'we have something for our family.'"

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