Where spiritual experiences happen
For the 31st consecutive year during Holy Week, a group of us met at the YMCA Camp northwest of Boone, Iowa, to climb "Chapel Point" and reflect on our blessings.
BOONE, Iowa — Continuing our Holy Week tradition of 31 years, members of the "Maltbie Davenport Babcock Society" met at the Des Moines YMCA Camp northwest of here on Wednesday, March 27.
As always, we had a delicious lunch, then had a group discussion of spiritual blessings we've received, then climbed the 146 switchback steps up a bluff to Chapel Point.
From up there, especially, you understand why, for 105 years, campers have called the place "The Closest Place to Heaven on Earth."
You’ll learn more about this tradition in the captions to the photos that follow.
Our group that gathered at the YMCA Camp this year included (left to right) Kevin Pokorny, Dennis Dykstra, Denise Essman, Chuck Offenburger, Mary Riche, Mary Luxa, Martha Gelhaus, Jane Rider, Ellen Corwin, Dodee Pugh, Stan Moffitt, Charlotte Trautvetter and Jenn Trautvetter.
This tradition began at a lunch among friends in downtown Des Moines on Tuesday of Holy Week in 1994. Their discussion somehow turned to, "Is there a specific place where you had your first spiritual experience?"
The late Chuck Corwin answered immediately: "On Chapel Point at the Y-Camp outside Boone. I would ride the train up and back from the camp in the summer when I was a boy."
The next day, Chuck Offenburger happened to be traveling near the Y-Camp in pursuit of one of his Des Moines Register columns. He stopped in, climbed the bluff to Chapel Point, and we've had groups do that every Holy Week Wednesday since then.
The lunch line in the Y-Camp's Cownie Dining Hall, which was decorated for Easter. Camp chef Eric Jaeger, who this year is celebrating 20 years on the staff, goes all out for us.
Our host at the Y-Camp, executive director Alex Kretzinger.
Dodee Pugh and her late husband Ray Pugh were camp directors at the Y-Camp for decades.
Ellen Corwin, her daughter Jenn Trautvetter and granddaughter Charlotte Trautvetter are shown here after they'd climbed to Chapel Point and back. You'll see wood plaques on the trees behind them. Those carry the lyrics of the old favorite hymn "This Is My Father's World."
Stan Moffitt, of Boone, first visited the Y-Camp as a boy during World War II. Now 90, he continues to serve on the camp's board and calls the place "an Iowa treasure."
Chuck Offenburger explains that the group is called the "Maltbie Davenport Babcock Society" because Babcock was the composer of the hymn "This Is My Father's World," which has become our theme song. We all sang it again, with Mary Riche our accompanist on a camp piano that, like most pianos at most camps, needs a little tuning.
Our discussion topic on this visit was, "In this Holy Week, which recalls the greatest sacrifice ever made, what has been a sacrifice that someone made that really benefitted or shaped who you are today?" The answers were deeply moving.
Grandmother Ellen Corwin, daughter Jenn Trautvetter and granddaughter Charlotte Trautvetter shared a good laugh -- in addition to serious reflections about people who have profoundly impacted each of them.
Kevin Pokorny and Martha Gelhaus talked sacrifices their parents made for each of them. In the background, you can see another of the Y-Camp's mottos.
Ice was out on the Des Moines River, which flows along the Y-Camp, but as the creek bed shows, more moisture is desperately needed.
Ellen Corwin gives Chuck Offenburger a "chip" marking his 35 years of sobriety. Ellen's late husband Chuck Corwin was Chuck O's "sponsor" in Alcoholics Anonymous. His receiving a new chip at Chapel Point has become part of the group's tradition.
Chuck Offenburger in one of his happy places -- atop Chapel Point at the Y-Camp outside Boone. From this open-air chapel, you look to the Y-Camp below on the Des Moines River and a view for miles around of the beautiful river valley.
Martha Gelhaus and Kevin Pokorny at Chapel Point.
The Maltbie Davenport Babcock Society up on top at Chapel Point.
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Thanks for including the photos in this column!
Thanks for sharing a great day! “All we are asking, is give Peace a chance.”
Herman Richter