Myra Miller
The Acadian Baptist Center, near Richard, has served as host for Campers on Mission for the past 25 years. Each year, normally in October, the Acadian Baptist Center grounds has many volunteers from all parts of Louisiana pull up in RVs and campers and stay for one week to work.
Campers on Mission (COM) is a national fellowship of Christian campers who share their faith while they camp. Membership is open to Christian campers of all denominations and requires no membership fees, only a willingness to join other campers in fellowship and service.
COM volunteers, mostly retirees, use their talents and past occupational work experience to paint, clean, house keep, do repairs, plumbing, do electrical repairs, sew, craft, build benches and much more.
The 30 volunteers this past week performed many repairs, did mechanical and electrical work and painting on the ABC campus Some work was done on older buildings on site.
Mostly among the volunteers were retired couples.
Among the volunteers was Doris Musick, 97, of Swartz.
Musick has been volunteering as part of the COM for the past 37 years. Musick worked and retired from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, District 5, as an office employee. Her late husband, Virgil Musick, died at 60 years old in 1979. He was an Army sergeant, and served in WWII.
Musick uses her talents of painting. “I like to paint. My husband built our home. He painted the outside of the home, and I painted the inside.”
Musick, born on Jan. 19, 1920, in York, Alabama, is the mother of three children, grandmother of six, and great-grandmother of seven. She drives by herself from Swartz, which is 8 miles from Monroe, every year to volunteer her work. Musick added, “I enjoy working, meeting new people, some are new faces each year. I never know from year to year who will be part of the volunteer team.”
The other COM volunteers are from Baton Rouge, Covington, Monroe, Carthage, New Iberia, Prairieville, St. Martinville, Denham Springs, LaPlace, Houma and St. Amant. The average age of the vounteers is 75.
Kathleen Carroll from Baton Rouge is a retired school teacher in East Baton Rouge parish, and Jim, her husband, is a retired purchasing agent of the East Baton Rouge School Board. Kathleen’s father was the late Charles Randel from Eunice, who was a principal at Eunice High School years ago.
A retired veterarian of 40 years, Tom Richard from Houma, is another volunteer. Another volunteer, Jewell Gautreaux, 78, from Geismar, is a retired after 34 years with the Uniroyal Company.
Bea Higginbotham, 81, from St. Martinville paint-rolled a finishing varnish on a gymnasium flooring Thursday morning on the ABC campus. This is her sixth year of volunteering. She retired as a cook in the school systems and at one time she ran a deli in her neighborhood.
The COM travel and volunteer their work talents most of the entire year. Normally the campers begin their work in January, take off the summer months, and start up again in September. They take the month of December off.
The Louisiana Campers on Missions in 2016 volunteered at Tall Timbers Conference Center in Woodworth, Seekers Springs Ministry in Eros; Camp Living Waters in Loranger; Clara Springs Encampment in Pelican; Judson Baptist Retreat Center in St. Francisville; Louisiana College; Camp Harris in Minden; Dry Creek Baptist Camp in Dry Creek; and Acadian Baptist Center in Eunice.
James Newsom is the Acadian Baptist Center’s director. The staff at ABC provides three hot meals a day for the Campers on Mission.