Mecklenburg County’s beloved Scout camp needs help to rebuild after fire

Though situated just to the west of South Mountains State Park, the camp is owned by the Mecklenburg County Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and thousands of Charlotte Scouts camp there each year.

A fire was reported in the kitchen of the dining hall at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Quickly a massive blaze spread through the whole building. Firefighters were unable to get it under control.

Photo by Mecklenburg County Council via Facebook

Within hours, it looked like this. Nobody was hurt. The fire was ruled to be an accident. It is not related to the wildfires in the region.

Photo by Mecklenburg County Council via Facebook

The dining hall was 40 years old.

There was insurance on the building, but the council expects to get only a fraction of the cost to replace it.

The council said it will likely get $1 million from its policy. But replacing the dining hall will likely cost in excess of $3.5 million, the council said in an email message.

The new structure will be updated, with room for more Scouts and air conditioning, heat and insulation the old building lacked.

Lost forever, though, is the Scouting history that was built there year after year.

“Structures can be rebuilt, but we lost items that can never be replaced,” the council wrote. “The memorabilia has taken decades to gather, but we know deep inside we will begin to build our new memories and traditions.”

The old Camp Grimes dining hall. Photo by the Mecklenburg County Council via Facebook.

Want to help? They’re raising money.

The Mecklenburg County Council is looking to raise the $2.5 million difference between the insurance payout and the cost to replace the building.

They’ve launched a GoFundMe to help collect donations. View it here.

So far, they’d brought in about $13,000 toward their goal of $500,000 to pay for site cleanup and next steps.