Effingham — March 13, 2008 — It has been a rough month for buildings in the area as they surrendered to Mother Nature. Hardest hit was Camp Marist, the summer camp located on Route 25 in Effingham.

According to Executive Director Joe Bouchard, on March 1 snow load claimed a cabin that houses 30 kids and their counselors in the summer months. On March 7, the recreation building collapsed and March 8, the gymnasium. Bouchard said the building losses will not affect the camping season. A contractor has been hired to rebuild the cabin as soon as weather allows. The recreation building, he said, has not been used for camp programs for six or seven years and was currently used as the camp store and storage for a large donation of furniture the camp received earlier this winter.

As for the gym, Bouchard said, though it was used only for rainy day activities during camp, it was used for storage during the winter months. It will take some time to uncover the three boats, go-karts, golf carts and camp vehicles that were stored inside to realize the full extent of the loss and what can be salvaged. Bouchard said the camp has 45 buildings and with the weekly snowstorms mixed with sleet and rain, all they could do is concentrate on the most vital buildings such as the dining hall, staff quarters and camp office then move their efforts to snow clearing the secondary buildings.

Camp Marist hosts about 250 campers per session for three sessions a year as well as football camps. Campers come from the local area and around the world from Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and other places.

Other Collapses
Over the weekend, fire departments were called to other area building collapses. West Ossipee Fire Department responded to a boat storage building collapse on Newman Drew Road. Madison Fire Department responded to Eidelweiss where snow load contributed to the collapse of the village’s salt/sand storage building. Effingham Fire Department responded to the Camp Marist call and to a vacant building collapse on Jones Road.