Restoring a historic Black-owned summer camp for North Minneapolis youth

Outdoor activities to enhance health in young campers

“Back in 1949, the thought was that in a land of 10,000 lakes,” says Aaron Raivo-Lynch, senior director of camp operations at Phyllis Wheatley Community Center (PWCC), “it only seems right that this community has a space of its own.” And it was on the strength of that sentiment that the vision for the first Black-owned summer campsite in the history of the North Star State was born.

Established in 1956, the camp was named in honor of longtime PWCC board member and supporter Katherine Parsons, who facilitated the purchase of 100 acres of land along the shores of Oak Lake in northern Carver County, just outside the small city of Watertown. 

Under the dedicated leadership of Carrie Hoffman Wallace and Cozelle Breedlove, Camp Katherine Parsons helped expose North Minneapolis youth to the wonders of the natural world for nearly half a century to build generations of “healthy, productive, and happy future leaders.” 

Unfortunately, funding for the camp faded, and the property fell into disrepair. Multiple attempts at revival have been made since the camp closed in the early 2000s. In 2023, a new funding bill sponsored by Senator Bobby Joe Champion and Representative Esther Agbaje brought the dreams to restore Camp Katherine Parsons back to life.

The restorative value of the natural world

Raivo-Lynch, who came of age on the North Side in the 1990s, understands the importance of camp and outdoor activities, especially regarding the mental, emotional and physical health of young people in our communities.

“I grew up during the days of ‘Murderapolis,’” he explains, “when hearing sirens and gunshots around my neighborhood was normal, whereas the sounds of nature were not.”

Raivo-Lynch, who at age five lost his grandfather to murder, credits his mother with introducing him and his two older sisters to the outdoors, making sure they experienced the natural environment around them as well as the benefits that summer camp and similar activities had to offer.

Those experiences shaped his childhood and many of his career choices. He learned both the program and facility side of parks and recreation. Raivo-Lynch joined PWCC in 2022 and was inspired by the organization’s quest to reestablish Camp Katherine Parsons.

“I see a lot of similarities to my childhood and what kids on the North Side face today,” he reflects, “a lot of parallels to the violence from when I was growing up.” 

That’s why, after the pandemic Ravio-Lynch emphasizes the restorative value of summer camp and connecting young people to nature. “This is vital to the health of children,” he continues. 

“For a lot of kids that will attend camp, this might be the first time they’ll ever remember being without a cellphone or access to another screen of some kind. Engaging them in outdoor activities, creative play, and other new experiences can build self-esteem, promote leadership skills, and open their eyes to opportunities they never knew existed.”

The future of Camp Katherine Parsons

Additional fundraising efforts are underway. The new designs for Camp Katherine Parsons are planned to be completed by November of this year, with a goal to reopen in the spring of 2025. In the meantime, PWCC will hold programming this summer under the banner of Camp Katherine Parsons for the first time in more than 20 years. 

Sponsored by the North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO), and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, “Camp Parsons Mississippi Summer” will consist of five two-week sessions, beginning on June 18 and continuing through August 29. Each session is open to children between nine and 12 and will meet four times (Tuesdays and Thursdays).

The program encourages a healthy, active lifestyle and emphasizes the importance of walking, biking, water safety, and simply being outside. Moreover, it seeks to see the river and the natural world around it as recreational space that belongs to all of us. With the many health-related benefits Camp Parsons Mississippi Summer will promote, there is also an important educational aspect to the campers’ activities.

“Of course, Minneapolis is known as the City of Lakes,” observes Raivo-Lynch. “But the Twin Cities exist because of the Mississippi River, and more specifically because of St. Anthony Falls.”

On the Minneapolis side of the river and in addition to St. Anthony Falls, campers will visit important sites such as the Sumner Field/Bassett Creek area, Coon Rapids Dam, MWMO headquarters, and North Mississippi Regional Park. St. Paul locations will include Mounds Regional Park, Harriet Island, and Dayton’s Bluff, highlighted by a boat ride from downtown St. Paul to Ft. Snelling State Park.

And as Raivo-Lynch notes, Ft. Snelling is significant for many reasons. It was, for example, the site where Dred and Harriett Scott were enslaved during the 1830s, where more than 1,600 Dakota people were kept in an internment camp beginning in 1862; and it’s where a group of escaped slaves that later founded Zion Baptist Church first came ashore in 1863.

“This is a chance to communicate to youth that African Americans and other people of color have been in Minnesota for centuries. That they were part of the outdoors, part of the river. And have contributed to life here for a long time.” 

For more info about Camp Parsons Mississippi Summer, go here.