(Written for The Meteor March 4, 2019)
Excitement was in the air last Thursday at Camp Kamassa, a camp under construction near Calling Panther Lake which will serve adults and children with special needs. A large audience eagerly awaited the arrival of a Chinook helicopter to drop two, 28-foot, 10,000 lb. steel containers full of tools and supplies needed to further construction at the site. The weather delayed the Air Drop for several hours, but upon arrival, it was worth the wait.
As part of the festivities before the drop, several important individuals were introduced by Mayor Sally Garland. Rev. Victor Willis led everyone in prayer before First Lady, Deborah Bryant, was introduced. Members of the military who spoke include Brigadier General James Camp, Col. Scott from Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense who is over the Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) program, and Stacy Gilman who has been very involved with the Camp and was the project manager last year when construction began.
Mary Kitchens, Director of Mississippi’s Toughest Kids (MTK), thanked everyone for making Camp Kamassa a reality. She acknowledged it has taken a large number of people and a great amount of time to get to where the camp is today, but there is plenty more to be done before the camp opens in the fall of 2020.
Those involved include the Mississippi Air National Guard, the Army National Guard, the IRT airmen, the 172nd Airlift Wing in Jackson, 200th Red Horse from Ohio, Dean & Dean Architects, WGK Engineering, and Electrical Co-operatives of America. Kitchens thanked Matt Holoman and Southwest Electric with plaques for donating labor, supplies, and poles for the project. She also thanked the MTK Board of Directors and volunteers for their hard work.
A lot of progress has taken place since the groundbreaking ceremony last May. Attendees were free to look at the cabins under construction while waiting for the Chinook to make the Air Drop. There will be 8 cabins for camp-goers, each built to hold 20 people. There will also be 6 family cabins, an administrative building with a conference center, a multi-purpose building, an agricultural area, a ball field, a lake, a pool, and special to the camp will be an infirmary so camp-goers can continue to take treatments while they are at camp.
Board President Dan Kitchens spoke about the need for the camp and how it will serve a variety of people. The list of who the camp will serve has expanded for time to include a variety of people such as burn patients, those with sickle cell anemia, or muscular dystrophy, and those who are dealing with obesity, or lost a parent, or are in foster care.
The Air Drop was another phase in the overall construction of the camp by the IRT program which developed through the Rebuild America Initiative. It is a program exclusive to the US and its territories. The partnership between the Department of the Defense and the local community provides opportunities for military personnel to use their skills for training. By the time the camp is completed, over 600 members of the military will have worked on Camp Kamassa through the IRT program.
For more information about MTK or Camp Kamassa, visit the Mississippi’s Toughest Kids Facebook page or the website at www.mtkfound.com.
