Group must raise quick $940,000 or someone else might get to buy Camp Little Notch

By Gordon Woodworth, Chronicle News Editor

The Friends of Camp Little Notch in West Fort Ann needs to raise $940,000 by Jan. 9, 2015, or risk losing the 443-acre girls summer camp.

“We are attempting to secure a $500,000 loan from the Community Loan Fund of the Capital Region, and we feel optimistic we will get the loan,” said board president Jo Lum on a Tuesday morning conference call with officials from the Open Space Institute, which owns the land.

“We have also launched a grass-roots fund-raising campaign using Crowdrise to raise an additional $100,000,” she said. “And we are seeking larger donors and asking them to give now, and emphasizing the urgency. We have $65,000 already committed, and I am very optimistic that we will be able to raise this money.”

In January 2012 The Friends of Camp Little Notch signed a lease-to-buy the former Girl Scout camp for $1.09-million from the Open Space Institute.

They tried to extend the lease, but told members in an e-mailed newsletter that “OSI has made it clear their priority is the rapid sale of the land, and an extension is unlikely.”

The newsletter said, “OSI has another interested buyer, one with deep pockets, who wants to buy the land now. If this buyer succeeds, we will lose our beloved Camp Little Notch forever.”

Camp officials said they had 115 campers this summer, and for the first time turned a profit while also providing 27 scholarships totaling $13,475.

OSI spokesperson Eileen Larrabee confirmed that “another organization has expressed interest” in buying the land, but “the Friends of Camp Little Notch have first rights.” She wouldn’t identify the interested organization.

The Open Space Institute bought the 2,346-acre former Girl Scout camp, east of Lake George, for $3.95-million in November 2010. It leased 1,921 acres to Meadowsend Timberlands Limited, which is actively logging it.

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