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Camp Jewell has now replaced four of its 24 cabins, with plans to replace the rest as part of a capital campaign.

Camp Jewell has now replaced four of its 24 cabins, with plans to replace the rest as part of a capital campaign.

Camp Jewell has now replaced four of its 24 cabins, with plans to replace the rest as part of a capital campaign.

COLEBROOK — Camp Jewell is working to replace its cabins that they said have been used by hundreds of thousands of visitors since 1956.

“We’ve been doing this for a long time, providing safe, great programs for kids,” Craig Dawson, the camp’s director, said after the first day of camp. “This year, camp is more like normal than it has been in a long time.”

The camp, which started in 1901, is a branch of the YMCA of Greater Hartford and serves more than 1,500 campers annually. That’s one reason staff members decided they needed to replace all 24 of their cabins, which they use all year long.

“Being built in ‘56, the buildings are getting a bit older now,” Dawson said. “People don’t want wooden shacks with screen windows and doors. They’re like little houses almost. They’re reaching that age. They’re inefficient. It costs a lot to heat them and upkeep them. We made the decision that we’d need to start replacing them.

The camp is working to raise money to replace the cabins through a capital campaign called “Building Dreams.” They’ve now replaced four of them, just in time for this year’s campers to arrive for the summer.

So far, they’ve utilized grants, like the Urban Act Grant from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection that helped them complete the last two cabins.

Dawson is hopeful that the statewide reach their camp has will help during the fundraising period.

“No matter where I go, if I’m wearing a Camp Jewell shirt, you’ll bump into someone who went there for camp or with their school,” Dawson said. “We don’t want to, as a nonprofit, we’re not going to hike up fees to pay for it. We just need to raise the money to ensure Camp Jewell remains here for the next 50 or 60 years.”

At one single time, Dawson said, the camp can serve 425 children during an overnight camp.

“We’re a pretty big overnight camp,” Dawson said. “The other reason we’re doing them is that our existing cabins have one shower and one toilet, and they’re not accessible.”

Dawson said the old cabins are still serving their purpose, particularly as demand for camp services this year ramps up with the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Each cabin can accommodate 28 people, are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and feature common areas to encourage bonding and friendships.

“The old cabins are still nice. The new ones are going to meet people's needs even better than the old ones at this point,” Dawson said. “There’s a lot of demand this year. Everyone has been tied to technology. They’ve been locked up. Parents want to get their kids outdoors and making friends and doing fun things.”

Dawson said there has been a lot of excitement around camp this year, as they look to continue their goal of teaching children social-emotional skills.

“We make people realize that there’s more that’s similar about each other than that’s different,” Dawson said. “The world can be quite divided. It’s getting people to say I’m a human being and you’re a human being. That helps the kids too. That they’re part of a bigger world.”