The Cincinnati Enquirer
Sunday, June 28, 1987

Fort Scott turns 65 this year

By Terry Gopman
Contributor to Tristate Magazine

Physician Lee Vesper and his family have a proprietary feeling toward Fort
Scott, which is celebrating its 65th anniversary this summer.

Three generations from this New Richmond family rode horseback, learned
crafts and trailed over the camp's 250-acre spread in northwest Hamilton
County, near the Great Miami River at New Baltimore. It is about 35
minutes from downtown Cincinnati.

Mark Maxwell, 36, the camp's executive director, says approximately 65% of
Fort Scott campers are Catholic; 35% non-Catholic. The camp is owned and
operated by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, admitting approximately 2,000
children annually.  About 150,000 campers have attended Fort Scott by the
close of this season, Aug. 15. Campers can attend for one-week or two-week
sessions.

This year, Jessica Vesper, 17, follows her parents and grandparent as a
full-time counselor during the summer. She says of her camp experiences:
"It's a vacation away from home. You get a certain attachment to this camp
and the whole atmosphere out there."

Doctor Vesper is sentimental about Fort Scott. He met his wife, Rose,
there 25 years ago when both were counselors.

"And my father camped at Fort Scott too, in 1923. He and others loaded
stone from out of the Miami River and built what he called the cook's
shack. I was there as a the camp medical director's assistant between my
junior and senior years at medical school."

Rose Vesper says she's delighted the camp works to keep its costs low so
that the experience can be affordable to families in all income brackets.
And there are many children who did what she did: worked to get there.

"I came from a family of modest economic means. I worked hard to save
enough money to go to camp."

On July 18, Fort Scott will hold its annual reunion at camp and welcome
staff members and campers both old and new. C. Richard Schroder, the
camp's medical director since 1950, will be honored at the reunion. He
began camping at Fort Scott in 1927. Today, he practices medicine in
Oneida, Ky.

Schroder moves out to Fort Scott each summer to minister to children who
have special medical needs: diabetes, medical emergencies and even
homesickness.

"Kids get a stomachache treatment if they're homesick. Many come in with
one and I tell them to hold out until the evening. Then they get special
treatment: campfire, hot dogs and marshmallows. Most of them are cured
after that. What that amounts to is you've kept them with their group all
day."

Fort Scott is in the doctor's blood, which makes him a compulsive camper.
"I'm interested in the outdoors, sports and people. I've met three
generations here. It's a quality camp."

Campers' ages range from 7 through 15. Lori Knollman, 8, daughter of Larry
and Conky Knollman of Anderson Township, returns this summer for her
second year. She says it's word-of-mouth that brings so many new campers
each season. "I met a lot of friends last year there, I also told my
friends about Fort Scott; some are coming this year."

Larry Knollman, 49, says Lori is the second generation of Knollmans to
attend. He spent seven years there as a boy. "The friends I made out there
are still my closest and dearest friends. Fort Scott put us together."

Now on the board of directors, Knollman says the real problem ahead in the
next 65 years is making the Fort Scott camping experience both fun and a
learning experience -- and one that can't be matched anywhere else.

Where it's 1987 or 2087, Knollman says, "We will have to constantly
challenge them."

On Sept. 19, Fort Scott will hold a fund-raising dinner at Xavier
University to honor its longtime camp physician by establishing the Doc
Schroder Endowment Fund. Money collected will be used in part to establish
camp scholarships.