Keeper of the Ghost Town

Images by Terrell Manasco The place looks like a ghost town. Nestled in a clearing of pine trees at the crest of a hill, half a dozen cream colored cinder block buildings, some with Bible verses painted on their walls, sit in eerie silence. Just beyond these buildings, a gravel road snakes around a cluster of several cabins, all empty. Were it not for the white pickup truck parked nearby, the grounds would look completely deserted. Underneath a large pavilion to the right is a small office area. On its front wall, a colorfully painted mural greets new campers with the words Welcome To ICYC. In a few weeks the eerie silence of these empty buildings will be broken by the laughter and singing of dozens of teenagers and adults. This ghost town will come alive.It’s a few hours away from lunchtime on this sun-drenched morning in late April, and already it feels like early summer. In the shade of the pavilion, wearing jeans and a black golf shirt with Indian Creek Youth Camp stitched in red lettering on the right chest, Burt Fuller, the camp administrator, relaxes on an old church pew. He’s been working on his ever-growing “To Do List” all morning, and the cool breeze now flowing through the pavilion is a welcome respite from his labor.“I grew up in Sumter County, south of Tuscaloosa,” Burt says in a low, calming voice. “My family still lives there. Michelle [his wife] grew up there too. Oddly enough, living in a little small town, we didn’t meet each other really until we were in college.”Burt and Michelle met while they were students at University of West Alabama (formerly Livingston University) and were soon married. “We both graduated with degrees in business administration, and I have a computer science degree, which I don’t use.....very much, anyway,” Burt says.After they were married, the Fullers moved to Memphis, where Burt worked for several years as a computer programmer. In 2001 they moved back to Sumter County. “I went from computer programming for about fifteen years to managing a catfish farm,” Burt says. “We had a hunting and fishing operation, so it was a rural life, more of what I grew up with.”Burt hadn’t planned to be a camp administrator, but an invitation to a retreat in 2007 from a member of the Northport Church of Christ, where the Fullers were then members, opened up the door. “Well, I kind of got suckered in,” he laughs. “Our youth minister, Brian Gentle, had invited me up to a teenage retreat called Renew, just to come help cook and hang out. While I was here he said something to me about coming to work and taking care of the place. The situation was right. The job I had then was about to play out so we met with the board and that’s all she wrote.”In 2008, Burt officially took the reins as the new administrator. “I don’t really know how to define that exactly,” he says, laughing. “It includes groundskeeping, to some degree. It also includes promotion, fundraising, coordinating of events and projects.”Indian Creek Youth Camp first opened in 1971, comprising approximately 70 acres of land in the area around Wolf Creek and Indian Creek. The camp is open for about 9 weeks each year. “Everyone checks in on Sunday afternoon and checks out on Friday morning,” Burt says. ‘Each week is directed by a different man, and some of those are on our board. All of our staff, with the exception of myself, is all volunteer, although we do pay the lifeguards.”The number of attendees varies each year, but has steadily increased since 1971. “Last year we had 1441. That’s not our largest year but it’s close,” Burt says. “I expect this year we’ll be somewhere between 1450 and 1500. That’s grown from 2006, the oldest records I have, and then we had 843 I believe. We’ve grown considerably in the last ten years. We can house 225, which is what we consider a full week. Right now four of our weeks are full. The other five weeks are 50-75% full.”There are a variety of activities each week, depending on that week’s director and staff. “Generally we have several sports activities,” Burt says. “Basketball is pretty much every week, ping pong tables, most weeks we play softball, a couple of weeks we have soccer matches. Every week they divide the campers up into teams and most of the staff participates. They have a sports competition during the week, which is always a highlight.”The camp’s location also lends itself to other activities. “Of course we have canoeing,” Burt says. “As you’d imagine, Indian Creek, we do things on the creek, and some of the weeks we’ll fish.”“Some of the groups will play cone ball. It’s kind of like dodge ball,” he says. “We play foursquare now, we’ve got our four square courts right here. Some activities are not related to sports per se, they’re more about team building. Most of our weeks will have a skit night where the cabins will come up with a skit, usually a funny one, picking on some counselor or staff member. And most weeks we’ll have a Bible Bowl competition during the week where they compete either as teams or cabins.”While the activities are designed to be fun, Burt says spirituality is the backbone of all of them. “Generally speaking, although most of our activities may not seem to be spiritually focused, we try to make sure they are,” he says. “If nothing else, with attitudes we display. We stress with our staff that they be as Christlike as they possibly can be, preferably all through life, but especially at camp, to display the proper example.”During off season, Burt spends time taking care of other duties. “Maintenance is a big thing, and fundraising,” he says. “Last year we had a little over 170 congregations represented during camp, but less than 25 actually support us financially. From the end of summer camp until the end of October, the camp is available for rent for groups to have retreats. Then we pick up again with rentals from the first of April until camp begins the first of June. Most of those are youth groups but we also have family groups, ladies retreats, and so on.”Burt also works with other groups doing camps in Tanzania. “Our first trip was in 2009. That was actually a mission trip, but the whole family went back in December,” Burt says. “We stayed a month with a missionary family there. We’ve had as many as 450, between the two locations where we do camps there. Our goal this year is to have a third location in Tanzania. “Burt says he hasn’t been to Tanzania the last two years, but plans to go back this December. ‘You can ask Michelle, I’ve been pretty miserable to live with the last two years, when I didn’t get to go,” he admits. “The experience with the people there is really refreshing. They’re very welcoming, they are very interested in talking to you, not only about Bible things but just learning what it’s like to live in America. Typically on TV we hear about how the world hates us, and I’ve not found that to be the case. Everywhere we've gone, from London to Nairobi, generally speaking, people are kind and even somewhat envious, really. They want to know how to be like we are. It’s very different than what it’s portrayed in the media.”Burt and Michelle have now been married 27 years, and have five children: three daughters, Kelsey, 23, Morgan, 21, and Rachel, 18, and two sons, Mack, 14, and Samuel, 11. Michelle volunteers and helps with camp registration, running the store, and other duties. “We’ve talked about how the happiest and saddest day of the summer is Friday, the last week of camp,” he says. “It’s so exhausting after nine weeks, really with no let-up, so we look forward to that last day. It’s also the saddest day because the camp is just a ghost town.”Naturally there are always issues that arise and things don’t always go exactly as planned, but Burt says it’s all well worth the effort. “To see the results, to know the good that we’re doing....and the friendships we’ve made...the good far outweighs the bad.” 78For more stories like these, visit our 78 Facebook page.