The most treasured memories of my childhood took place during the summers at Camp Duffield.

Like a lot of people I was so sad to hear that Camp Duffield was for sale and no longer available for rentals. Camp Duffield has become special place for my family. What is my Duffield story? I will try to tell you. My husband's dad was Rev. Ed Pitz from North Park Presbyterian Church. He was involved in the summer camp for handicapped adults. The church also had retreats at Camp Duffield twice a year, spring and fall. My husband was "too cool" to go to church camp. Now he loves the outdoors and camping but Ed had never been to Duffield. The year before my daughter, Caitlin was born, we went down to the camp during one of the retreats, just for the day. That is all it took. We have been to Camp Duffield every year since then, sometimes 3 times a year, until last year. We started going twice a year with North Park. As those in charge grew older, or moved away, I took over more of the duties of organizing the weekends. North Park went twice a year so it was a lot of work but well worth it.

I have 2 girls. Caitlin will be graduating from college this May. Marissa is a freshman. They cannot remember never going to camp. They started out sleeping in cribs. They grew up at camp. It was such a big deal when we could let them walk from the cabin to Janeway by themselves. Then later they become old enough to walk the yellow trail by themselves in the daytime. And later still walking the yellow trail at night by themselves (with friends).

Camp Duffield is absolutely the only place that we went that the girls did not complain about. Camp Duffield was the only place that it was OK to bring their friends and have them stay with their parents. ( You know how teen girls are) The girls and their friends loved to cook in the big kitchen. They even loved to do the dishes with that dishwasher. Duffield was always good family time. Meanwhile, my family had moved to a church closer to our home in North Tonawanda, Nash Road Free Methodist Church. We still went to camp with North Park church. I still did the planning, advertising, menu planning, shopping and on and on. All the while, Ed and I kept saying that we could not believe that our new church did not do a family retreat. The Free Methodists do have their own camps but no one seemed interested in organizing a family retreat. Year after year. Finally we decided that if Nash Road was going to have a family retreat it would be up to us to do it. I felt that this was something that I could do for our church, a way to serve the congregation. We introduced Duffield to the church through the teens. We held a overnighter for the teens and they loved it. The teens could not believe that the adults were not going to do any work. The teens had to cook, do dishes and clean up the cabins at the end. There were guys washing dishes that had never washed a dish in their lives. They loved working together. The following year we took the teens again. The next year Nash Road held its first annual family retreat. We were apprehensive about taking the adults and families. Would they like it? What about the accommodations? So on. Those that came enjoyed themselves. I should not worry about taking a group to God's camp. Somehow it always works out when you leave it in God's hands. We went one more time before the camp closed. What do we like about the family retreats at Camp Duffield? We are able to appreciate the beauty that God has put into nature for us to enjoy. We love the fellowship we have with one another. Many times at church you only have time to greet each other and you don't really get to know one another. At camp we mix people up with cooking and cleaning up details. Working together is a great way to get to know each other. We love the services outside by the bonfires with the dogs wondering around. There is something so special in taking communion out in nature. I like being away from the distractions of modern society to spend quality time with your family and friends. (That has changes with cell phones, portable DVD players, game boys and iPods.) Camp Duffield is just special. A home away from home.

Camp Duffield is so special that we have shared it with friends. We brought the O'Malley's with us every year. They have boys the same age as my girls. They loved it so much they started a family retreat with her church, All Saints Empirical Church. The O'Malley's changes churches, so they included both churches in their annual retreat. One of their group members moved to Grand Island and started a family retreat with their new church on Grand Island. It is a special place. Camp Duffield was also my dog, Tessa's favorite place to be. We would drive over the metal bridge near the camp and Tessa would start making the oddest noises ( a trill sound with her throat- not the least bit dog like) with such excitement. Tessa was a springer spaniel and she loved running free at camp. Tessa loved the creek and the pond. Tessa loved the yellow trail. Tessa is no longer with us but we have such great memories of her at Duffield.