BRINNON — While visitors to Camp Parsons go without many of the comforts of home, a new $4 million facility helps them find fellowship and comfort in the wild.
This week, contractors are putting the final touches on the addition: a 14,000-square-foot building that includes a dining hall big enough to host 600 people and an industrial kitchen capable of serving them all at once.
The facility, funded largely by private donors and small businesses, was operated this summer but still needs some polishing, such as dividing walls that can be used to accommodate smaller groups, according to camp director Kenneth McEdwards.
The camp — located 5 miles north of Brinnon on 970 Bee Mill Road in a setting that borders both Hood Canal and the small mountain range south of Quilcene — is a 97-year-old, 440-acre spread that hosts camping and hiking, as well as swimming and boating from a 550-foot dock that extends from the three-fourths-mile Hood Canal waterfront.
The camp has enough heated and unheated housing and campsites that all of the 600 people who can fit into the new dining hall can stay overnight.
It is owned and operated by the Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts of America’s Seattle council and “attracts Scouts from all over,” McEdwards said.
The camp operates year-round, with Boy Scouts generally filling it up for the whole summer.
Modern technology such as Wi-Fi is available, but visitors aren’t likely to spend their stay glued to their devices, McEdwards said.
“These days, email is the best way to communicate,” he said.
“But once you get the kids out here and they experience the outdoors, they are out there paddling in a kayak or a canoe, and they don’t care so much about what is going on elsewhere.”
The camp can be rented in the offseason. Only nonprofits, churches, schools and designated organizations can use the facility.
It is not available for corporate retreats or private social functions such as weddings, but that could change, McEdwards said.
The cost of the facility stretched the fundraising effort to eight years, McEdwards said.
One donor he noted was Fat Smitty’s, Discovery Bay’s landmark hamburger restaurant.
The place has a tradition of customers stapling dollar bills to its walls and ceiling.
In January 2012, the restaurant took down the money and contributed $7,000 to the cause.
McEdwards, 53, is in his 21st year as full-time director, a salaried position. He lives on the premises.
He also is running unopposed for a third term on the Brinnon Fire Department Board of Commissioners.
McEdwards was a Scout as a child and has spent much of his adult life involved with the organization.
“I’ve been in Scouting my whole life, and I really enjoy it,” McEdwards said.
“For the kids, it builds their confidence and gives them skills they can use down the road,” he said.
“The kids who have exposure to the outdoors typically aren’t the ones who walk into a school and start blasting away.”
McEdwards graduated from South Kitsap High School in 1980 as part of a class of 500. He doesn’t know where any of his former classmates are today but is in touch with 300 current and past Boy Scouts.
“The friendships I’ve made have lasted a lifetime,” he said.
For more information about the camp, see www.campparsons.com or contact McEdwards, kenmcedwards@gmail.com.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
