The Rev. Emanuel Smith Jr., pastor at the Israelite Baptist Church, annually sets up a Wilderness camp for boys from disadvantaged backgrounds.

According to Rev. Smith, these young boys, because of where and how they grew up, did not have the opportunity to partake in recreational activities and thus miss out on great learning experiences of life. He said most of them have never even been outside of the city.

“All they ever do is walk from their house to the community and see men hanging out on the local corner, drinking beer and doing other things. I thought it’d be an excellent opportunity to get them out of an environment that they’d never been out of, and by doing that, do something more than recreational,” Rev. Smith said.

Rev. Smith joined Larry Williams and founded The Wilderness Camp for Boys 11 years ago.

According to Williams, 25 kids from ages 8-17 take part in the camp, which takes place between June and July every year.

“Over 250 kids have now participated since its founding. As we go along each year, it gets better and better,” Williams said.

Recreational activities at camp include fishing, swimming, and paddle boating. During this year’s summer camp trip, Williams brought a movie projector for the boys.

He added that a value that the camp emphasizes on is the importance of basic survival. In the early days of the camp, they brought portable showers and some boys tried bathing in the pond.

“The first time it was really a wilderness camp,” Williams said.

Emanuel Smith, who attended the camp this year, said he had a great experience.

“I knew a lot of the boys, but I made a lot of new friends and am looking forward to meeting more people the next time I go camping,” Smith said.

He further added that the camp had a positive impact on him.

“It basically taught me how to avoid trouble and not to hang with the wrong gangs that’ll really get you in trouble,” Smith said.

Rev. Smith said the kids come from inner-city, poverty-ridden neighborhoods and because of that, he viewed the camp as a crime fighting organization that instills christian values into the boys and shows them that there’s more out there in the world.

“Let them know that there are no boundaries established for them, that they can always make a difference,” Rev. Smith said.

Both Rev. Smith and Williams finance the camp out of their own pockets and are looking for sponsors willing to partner with The Wilderness Camp so that they can host trips year-round.