On Saturday August 24, 2024, after a couple intense weeks that included the end of Resident Camp, September Song & Discovery, followed by the 100 Year Staff Reunion, a modest ceremony took place at the site where the new Holy Family carvings have been placed between the tennis courts and the Dining Hall. FoCC Vice-President Kitt Kurtz was responsible for the dedication. During the height of the pandemic, she and co-conspirator Mary “Beora” O’Connor, looked at the weather-beaten remains of Mary from Sister Mercedes original carvings and planned a project to return the Holy Family to Christopher grounds. They enlisted local craftsman Joseph Heindel. In the best tradition of the volunteer projects which have been part of the Friends of Camp Christopher DNA, this trio worked to bring the wooden triptych to life.
A tribute lineup including Sister Joanne Caniglia, Joseph Heindel, Mary O’Connor, Kitt Kurtz & Tim Lilley.
A Catholic Universe Bulletin photo from the late 1950’s showing Sister Mercedes at work transforming a telephone pole into a likeness of Mary.
This past season saw the placement of the three fine statues into Camp’s landscape. Kitt was intent on honoring this accomplishment with a proper inauguration. Both she and Beora had ties to the Akron-based Dominican Sisters who were such a part of Camp’s history in it’s first 50 years. To honor the memory of nurse/artist Sister Mercedes whose woodcarving skills transferred abandoned telephone poles into the first Holy Family statures, they invited Sister Joanne Caniglia, OP, to represent the order even as the site of Our Lady of the Elms was sadly closing.
FoCC VP Kitt Kurtz and FoCC webmaster Tim Lilley lead their guests in a musical tribute to the Holy Family: “Wind in the Willows.”
