Wingfield Camp
The history of youth camp would not be complete without mentioning these additional weeks of youth camp held in the home of Richard and Laura Cooke on the Shenandoah River near Winchester, Virginia. What a lovely setting for young people to gather and worship God. Richard and Laura Cooke dreamed of an east coast youth camp at their home, and after lots of work by the folks there and David Charles, they were able to make that dream come true. Their basement was the kitchen and dining room and the living area upstairs became the sanctuary where the songs rang out and the gospel preached. They had acreage where the sports were played and big tents were erected to house the kids. A pool was available there in the complex for swimming so they had all the amenities for camp. In August of 1968 the first camp was held and the last camp was that same month in 1971. Four years of unforgettable memories!! There were 25-35 young people present at those camps. In the early summer of 1972 the camps came to an abrupt halt as the Shenandoah flooded Wingfield and destroyed a lot of the camping area. Water reached the windows in the upper story.
The camp was manned by the Laytons (Dick was the head cook), Ripleys, Cookes and then help came from Michigan many of those years by the Charles' and the Don Begeman's. Elder Wilkinson was the spiritual head. The Pease family motored down from New York also. One of the unusual aspects of the camp was that the young people ran a lot of the activities. Walter Layton, Robert Ripley and Deborah Layton were laborers in that field plus a lot of others. The Camp started with 27 campers and gradually moved upward in numbers.