Camp Experience as Youth Provides Lasting Memories

It’s been almost six decades since Morris Chapnick went to camp, but he can still remember its song.

“We welcome you to Camp Wakeegon; we’re mighty glad you’re here . . .”

His clear tenor vibrates slightly as he sings the words, which take the retired film production manager back to a tough childhood in the Bronx made a little better by the generosity of others.

“I was raised by charity,” Chapnick said. “I was not a nice kid when I was young--nothing like they have today--but I was a little difficult to deal with. I remember being sent to camp. I still remember it.”

Because of this intensely personal connection, Chapnick understands the value of experiences that, as he puts it, “expose kids to another side of life they otherwise wouldn’t see.”

“Kids who grow up in the streets or come from troubled streets,” he said, “have to have something positive in their life.”

Last November, Chapnick, who has long been a supporter of the Times Summer Camp Program, added the Times Holiday Campaign to his roster of giving.

Both programs are part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund.

He eagerly awaits the beginning of the fund drives. “I literally wait for it,” he said. “I see an ad in the Los Angeles Times, saying you’d better send in your money, and I do. I send in a check. I think it’s very important.”

The McCormick Tribune Foundation will match the first $500,000 in donations at 50 cents on the dollar, and The Times absorbs all administrative costs for the fund. Chapnick said that is one reason he gives through the newspaper.

“I love the idea that the paper is not deducting anything for their expenses,” he said. “And because the L.A. Times is doing it, I feel comfortable in giving them money. I believe they have checked these outfits out and that they are legit and the money is going to be used properly.”

Chapnick said he gives what he can--a little bit here, a little bit there. “If I had more money,” he said, “I would give more.”

He usually chooses not to be acknowledged in the published list that often appears in the paper following a fund drive, preferring instead to be what he calls “famously anonymous--or anonymously famous.”

It is providing something for children who are less-than-privileged, who may not otherwise have such an opportunity to see the world beyond their own neighborhoods, that Chapnick finds is his reward for giving. “Children,” he said, “are the future.”

THE TIMES HOLIDAY CAMPAIGN

Tax-deductible donations: Donations (checks or money orders) should be sent to L.A. Times Holiday Campaign, File #56491, Los Angeles, CA 90074-6491. Please do not send cash. Credit card donations can be made at https://www.latimes.com/holidaycampaign. Contributions of $25 or more will be acknowledged in the Los Angeles Times unless a donor requests otherwise. For information about the Holiday Campaign, call (800) 528-4637 (LA TIMES), Ext. 75480.