A fire breaks out during lunch on the last day of Younger Girls camp at Miniwanca. Horace and Dorty sends seasonal staff out of the building to call for help and monitor the situation, then instructs the campers to grab some fruit and head straight down to the beach. Dorty makes sure all the campers face the water so they won’t see the smoke and stay calm.
Staff from across the site work quickly to get the fire under control. Leaders run bucket brigades from Stony Creek until the volunteer firefighters arrive with pumps. Ultimately, 20 cabins are destroyed. Campers from those cabins lost everything they had, but they were all safe thanks to Dorty.
As the fire is put out, former AYF Executive Director and Founder Preston G. Orwig realizes Older Girls participants will arrive for their program in just a few days. In just one afternoon, he orders lumber, beds, and mattresses to help rebuild the cabins and replace what was lost. In just four days, all the cabins lost to the fire are rebuilt before Older Girls conference, thanks to the incredible volunteer support from the Miniwanca community.
