Lifeguard Rick Chambers oversees Camp Binachi staff members enjoying some free time at the newly created swimming area and beach.

    Rick Chambers remembers a time when Camp Binachi looked considerably different, particularly Frank Williams Lake.

    “That’s not even the shape of the lake that I grew up with,” he said looking over a new swimming area. “Hills are gone; valleys have been filled in.”

    Chambers, a Meridian native, has been involved with the Boy Scouts of America for 41 years, joining as a young man and attending Camp Binachi when he was younger. He has been a central part of boy scout camps across America and even internationally, but most of his tenure has been at Camp Binachi.

    “I came as a camper the first time in 1970, and then starting in ’73 I got on staff,” he said. In that time, he has seen the very landscape of Camp Binachi change drastically.

    The many modifications to Camp Binachi in recent months culminated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday, during which the Choctaw Area Council of the BSA thanked various businesses and organizations for making the changes possible.

    The most notable of these renovations include a new waterfront and swimming area, and 12 new pavilions for camp sites throughout the 436-acre property.

    “It’s important for us to continue to provide a program that’s exciting for the boys, not the same thing that was exciting to boys 40 years or 20 years ago,” said Ken Kercheval, CEO and scout executive of the Choctaw Area Council. “This is where we deliver the true message of scouting.

    “This is where the leadership skills kick in. This is where they learn to get along.”

    The new pavilions comprise 11 16 feet-by-16 feet structures, and another one measuring 16 feet by 36 feet near the lake. 

    Kercheval thanked Tommy Dulaney and other representatives of Structural Steel for providing and constructing the pavilions, as well as 25 picnic tables, the cost of which Kercheval estimated was more than $200,000.

    Eagle scout Samuel Wilson, 18, said that he’s looking forward to the pavilions because they will be “much more spacious” than a dining fly, which is a canvas sheet used to cook and meet under in camp sites.

    Wilson is among about 30 other scouts and volunteers who are on staff at Camp Binachi this summer, training this week for when summer camp opens next week.

    Frank Williams Lake has also seen significant improvements, the most noticeable of which is a new beach and swimming area.

    “The waterfront is awesome,” said Nolan Reynerson, who has been the camp director for a year and a half. “Before they were swimming in like this muck.

    “They would sink four of five inches in silt, just nasty mud, slimy stuff. Nobody wanted to do it. Now we got a new beach with compacted sand.”

    Kercheval said that the renovations to the lake cost more than $150,000, adding “that includes the docks, the new dam, cleaning out all the silt.”

    Reynerson emphasized that Camp Binachi is “always looking to improve” not only its facilities, but the services it offers scouts, scoutmasters and other camp users.

    With all Camp Binachi’s improvements, now scoutmasters and other mentors will be better equipped to make a difference in the lives of young men. For Chambers, that difference means saving lives.

    “If I teach this young man how to save life and he goes and saves a life, I’ve had something to do with that,” Chambers said. “It’s a really good feeling.”