FALL RIVER DIOCESAN NEWSPAPER FOR SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSEnS CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS
t eanc 0 VOL. 25, NO. 35
FALL RIVER, MASS., THURSDAY, AUGUST 27; 1981
20c, $6 Per Year .. .. ~
East Freetown camps are children's paradise By 路Pat McGowan
Growing up at Cathedral and Our Lady of the Lake camps on Long Pond in East Freetown was pure heaven for Steven and Nancy Lachapelle. They had 95 acres of lakefront land for the roaming, hundreds of playmates all summer long and sports fal cilities at their disposal year round. But, in this imperfect world, someone must maintain hE~aven and for nearly 15 years that's been the job of Steve and Nancy's parents, Roger and Maureen Lachapelle. So demanding it's been that they haven't taken a vacation for 13 of those 15 years. "Of course we can't go in the summer when the campers are here," explained Mrs. Lachapelle, "and afterwards the c:hildren were in school and we couldn't leave them." But the time has finally (:ome. The children are grownup and can watch the camp while their parents take off. For three months? Two? One? Nop,e just for a week. For ,Lachapelle there arEl the matters of grass that must be cut daily, of buildings always needing the touch of a hammer here, a paintbrush there, of an armada of boats that must be
made shipshape before' they're stored for the winter. Also, come snow, camp roads must be plowed in conformance with fire department regulations requiring access to buildings at all times. For Mrs. Lachapelle there's office work and scheduling of the retreats and outings that make the camps a busy place for months either side of the day camp season as well on all summer weekends. Those are the off-season chores. In summer the pace escalates as 600 children arrive and leave camp daily, like advincing and receding tides. Most come via the camp bus system, said Mrs. Lachapelle. It's her task to route 10 to 11 buses serving the greater New Bedford and Fall River communities as well as many neighboring towns. It's not a once-a-summer job, she said, since the camp roster changes every two weeks, necessitating dropping some bus stops and adding others. Sometimes, she noted, out-ofthe-way routes also necessitate pressing into service vans belonging to Father Leonard Mullaney, camp director and pastor of St. Bernard's parish, .Assonet. Father Mullaney is also a busy man, currently supervising an extensive remodeling of St. Bernard's facilities, while keeping
an eagle eye on camp activities. aren't found on many jobs, like Mrs. Lachapelle chuckled as having the quiet of the camp she recalled that when she and office interrupted by a chorused her husband came to the camp, "Hi" from a passing clutch of the main job was to be his. kids. And in the years when Father Walter Sullivan, then Cathedral was an overnight as camp director, and Mrs. Lachap-. well as day camp, Mrs. Lachapelle's brother, murmured some- elle admitted it was delightful thing to her about "maybe help- to walk into the camp dininging out an hour or two a day in . room for supper instead of turning from desk to stove at day's the office," she said. Before she knew it, the hour end. The overnight camp is unlikely or two had expanded to a 12hour day while camp was in to return, however, said the La路 session. A big job is answering chapelles. For one thing, costs the telephone, which begins would be prohibitive in today's ringing in early morning and economy and for another the continues all day. Also demand- overnight program attracted ing is the maintenance of camp more children from outside than registrations and other records, within the diocese. a task that starts months before "With a day camp, we're servOur Lady of the Lake and Cathe- ing our own kids," noted Mrs. dral open in early July. Lachapelle, who added that But there are fringes that some 100 of the camps' average
600 youngsters attend for the whole season, mainly because both parents work. The camp property was bought about 1898, said Lachapelle, and has been used for youngsters' summer fun for about 67 years since that time. For a period during World War II it was an army facility and it was for a long period also used regularly for diocesan retreats. Nowadays it still hosts the annual priests' retreat, which means a flurry of bedmaking and cleaning for Mrs. Lachapelle and her daughter, plus several teen retreats a year. The teens, though, bring sleeping bags, so less preparation is needed for them. Also a yearly fixture is a foot路 ball training session for the Medford High School team, plus Turn to Page Six
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Educa,tors Nearly 500 persons, including 44 from the Fall River diocese, attended a first-ever meeting of New England religious educators, held last weekend at Sto:nehill College, North Easton. Sponsored by the New England Conference of Diocesan Directors of Religious Education, the meeting was also believed the first of its kind in th4~ nation, said an organizer, Sister Frances Sidebottom, SSJ, of the Fall River Diocesan Department of Education. All 11 New England dioceses were represented, she said, at the "gathering of professional religious educators which provided an opportunity for sharing and enrichment and to reo flect together upon our common mission." The major speakers were Father Maurice Monette, OMI, of the faculty of Loyola University, NElw Orleans, and Sister Jose Hobday, OSF, a consultant in spirituality and Indian affairs to the diocese of Tucson, Ariz. Both emphasized the need for religious educators to reach out
to people personally rather than simply imparting knowledge. They said that educators should be people of prayer, grounded in scripture and tradition, yet looking to the future. In welcoming the delegates to the Fall River diocese, Bishop Daniel A. Cronin expressed gratitude for their contribution to the teaching church on both the parochial and diocesan levels. Other convention features included a "media prayer experience" presented by Father Patrick Mooney of Norwalk, Conn.: and an explanation of use of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults as a parish learning experience. The latter was presented by Sister Beverly 'Brazauskas, SSJ, of Tolland, Conn.
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