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DOWAGIAC — Despite the cancellation of an annual fundraiser, one local sorority was shocked by how supportive the community remained.

Last week, Pat Franz, the chairperson of a canceled soup luncheon hosted by the Xi Delta Mu and Kappa Beta that was scheduled for earlier this month, still handed over a check written for $1,700 to Dave Mahar, the president of Fitch Camp. 

Fitch Camp, which was started in 1941 and is hosted at Cable Lake, is a nonprofit agency that provides supervision, leadership and activities to Dowagiac children. The camp is open to all elementary and middle school students with attendance, transportation and meals costing $1 a day.

“We are just very grateful and appreciative of everybody that donated,” Franz said.

More than 20 individuals, local businesses and corporations contributed to the donation fund.

“For no soup, I am pretty amazed at our community,” said Janet Feick, treasurer of Xi Delta Mu, who was also present for the check presentation.

Mahar has been on the board of Fitch Camp for more than 23 years and has been president for more than 10 years.

“One of the board members asked me to join because we were getting some aging, and some of the people that were involved wanted to get a younger group,” Mahar said. “It’s obviously a great cause and a great organization.”

Annually, the soup luncheon’s donations are used for the regular operations of the camp, which cost about $120,000 a year, Mahar said.

“All of our funds are donated,” Mahar said. “The sorority’s fundraiser is one of the best we’ve had. They are the only ones who do a fundraiser for us on an annual basis.”

Mahar called Fitch Camp an “opportunity based around Dowagiac.” Children who attend Dowagiac schools are eligible. If families live in Dowagiac, but their children another school, they are still able to go to Fitch Camp.

As president, Mahar makes an effort to spend much of his time at Fitch Camp every year. He also encourages people to attend open houses, which are hosted for two days back to back.

“We try to get people to come out with us and see how the camp runs and maybe try to get those people to donate,” he said.

Mahar said it is also common for people who have attended Fitch Camp as a child and then stayed in the community or even moved away, to continue to support the camp.

“I would say a pretty good portion of kids that go to school here that can will attend the camp,” he added. “It’s a $1 [per day], and if they don’t have the $1, we have a little fund that takes care of $1 for them.”

Any child who attends Fitch Camp gets transportation out to the camp, which provides campers with arts, crafts, counselors, lunch, a snack after lunch and then transportation back.

Mahar added a regular water safety instructor is always on-site, and instructors teach attendees about cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other life-saving techniques.

“It is just a great camp and one of a kind,” Mahar said as he received the sorority’s donation. “Donations like this are huge to us.”