Becket-Chimney Corners YMCA

Chapel is a non-religious gathering that takes place on Sundays at both Camp Becket and Chimney Corners Camp (separately). Several campers and staff are chosen to give a speech on the theme. It is an outdoor event with a designated location by the lake at both camps.

The Becket-Chimney Corners YMCA offers specialty programs for older campers, such as Construction cabins, for campers interested in carpentry and building skills, and the Adventure Odyssey cabin, for campers interested in rock climbing, bouldering, and backwoods, low-impact camping. One new structure is completed each season. The Adventure Odyssey blends sport climbing using a ropes course, climbing tower, various top-roped chimneys on the property, and off-site climbing locations, with off-site camping and hiking. The focus of this program is group building and leave-no-trace camping techniques.

Each summer since 1963, the Becket-Chimney Corners YMCA sends teenagers around the United States and around the world. The International Camper Exchange Programs (ICEP) focus on service work and cultural exchange in Vietnam, Chile, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, China, Peru, Armenia, Uruguay and Sweden, each of which lasts for about 35 days. The REACH program sends groups to the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota to do service work and learn about Native American life today. The Teen Leadership and Service (TLS) program combines biking and community service in Vermont and New York State. Yellowstone Adventure and Service (YAS) combines adventure activities and service work in Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons.

Aides Program The Aides program is an eight-and-a-half-week leader-in-training program offered to participants finishing their junior year in high school. Dr. Russell Irons started the current program in 1951 as the first step in the camp's leadership development program. Its participants consist of approximately 30 former campers selected from a very competitive pool of applicants. The focus of the Aides Program is to learn how a resident camp operates by assisting in the office, store, infirmary, and kitchen. Aides also partake in lifeguard training and join cabin groups to learn how to become counselors.

REACH The REACH program, which is explained more in the Chimney Corners section, used to be a co-ed program where people are trained to become counselors solely in South Dakota. As of 2012, the REACH program became single sex, and the participants now spend part of their time working on Native American reservations in South Dakota, and the other part in Camp Becket. It has also become a six-week program.

Camp Becket, also known as Camp Becket-in-the-Berkshires, is a YMCA summer camp for boys in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. Founded in 1903 by George Hannum on Rudd Pond in Becket, Massachusetts, it is one of the oldest continually operational summer camps in the United States, and is consistently rated among the best camps of its kind. The camp continues to teach core values espoused by its second director, Henry Gibson (tenure, 1904-1927).[1]

These include the eight Becket Mottos:

• Do your best
• Play the game
• Manners maketh the man
• Peace through understanding
• I can and I will
• Each for all—all for each
• Better faithful than famous
• Help the other fellow

The camp is divided into four units, called villages, that each contain eight to ten cabins. From youngest to oldest, these are:

• Iroquois (cabins named after the American Indian tribes of the Iroquois League, and Algonquin and Erie)
• Pioneer (cabins named after famous explorers)
• Frontier (cabins named after U.S. Forts). It is also known as the Showcase Village because it is in the middle of the camp
• Ranger (cabins named after U.S. National Parks).

Part of the Becket Chimney Corners YMCA, Chimney Corners is a single-sex girl's sister camp to Camp Becket situated about a mile away, on Smith Pond. Chimney Corners offers many opportunities for campers, including horseback riding, tennis, soccer, and many other sports and arts activities. The camp is divided into three different age groups: The Junior Unit (cabins named after famous ships), for ages 7–11; The Intermediate Unit (cabins named after mythical places), for ages 11–13; and the Senior Unit (named after constellations), for ages 13–15. The camp is divided into two four week sessions, although the youngest campers have the opportunity to stay for just two weeks. Campers in the oldest age group can also participate in construction cabins and Adventure Odyssey was reinstated for Chimney Corners in 2014.

Campers older than 14 can take part in travel and service programs, then participate in the Aides Program or travel to a South Dakota Reservation in a program called REACH (Reaching, Educating and Caring for Humanity), and then become an Assistant Counselor and Counselor. Some of the oldest Chimney Corners staff members have been to the camp for over 13 years.

Initiated in 1991, the primary goal of the REACH Program is to help teens develop leadership skills through a service-oriented experience, based in a Lakota Sioux community in South Dakota. The services heighten the importance of volunteer service for the benefit of others. The REACH Program incorporates visits to pow-wows, Badlands National Park, Wounded Knee, Mount Rushmore, and the Crazy Horse Memorial.

In the southwestern corner of the Cheyenne River Reservation, participants stay in the Red Scaffold community center. Red Scaffold is a small town consisting of 15-30 homes, churches, cemeteries, and playgrounds with a population of approximately 100-150 people. REACH groups will also partner with the Sioux YMCA located in the town of Dupree.

Chimney Corners also has its own set of mottos:

Agape: Unconditional love for all of humanity

PACE: Positive Attitude Changes Everything

HELPS: Healthy Living, Empowering Girls and Women, Leadership and Learning, Positive Relationships, and Social Responsibility.

Chimney Corners is also rich with traditions. These include song and dance competitions called Wiff N' Poof and Song and Sign, a 5K color run during first session, and Chimney Palooza, a dance party run by the Aides, during second session.

• BCCYMCA.org
• https://www.bccymca.org/application/files/5916/4935/6181/BCCYMCA_Summer_Guide_2022_2-compressed.pdf

42.2918°N 73.0787°W / 42.2918; -73.0787