Camp Don Bosco Likely Won't Be Sold

CARNATION - Area Catholics who spent summers at Camp Don Bosco are celebrating the Seattle Archdiocese's apparent decision to hold onto most of the popular 200-acre property.

Church leaders are "definitely moving away from a proposed sale at this point," said Steve McAuliffe, director of the archdiocese's Catholic Youth Organization, which runs the camp. "It looks pretty definite that the camp won't be sold."

Over the past 44 years, hundreds of thousands have camped on the scenic land south of Carnation, one of three youth camps in the archdiocese. Many of those campers were alarmed by a proposal to sell Don Bosco to help finance repairs at Camp Gallagher on the Key Peninsula in Pierce County and Camp Hamilton near Monroe.

At a forum in October, they asked the archdiocese to somehow find a way to hang onto the $4 million property, which King County was interested in buying. Don Bosco, the oldest of the three camps, is also the most accessible to children and disabled people, McAuliffe said.

"It sounds like there was some soul-searching," said Tracy Rathke of Seattle, who will be Don Bosco camp director next summer and attended the camp as a child. "I think they made the best choice they can."

The alternative, McAuliffe said, will likely be to log parts of all three camps.

"Our system really needs about $1 million of capital maintenance and renovation, and the money has to come from somewhere," he said.

"We want to be sure we don't damage the aesthetics or potential uses for our programs, so the thinning will be very moderate."

McAuliffe said church officials are also considering selling 25 acres of Don Bosco to King County, which promises to create a stream preserve and offer environmental education. Neither the partial land sale nor the logging bothers camp supporters.

"If it means that we can continue the camp for our children for the next 30 years, then I think it's a good choice," Rathke said.

The CYO board will likely take an advisory vote on the proposal early next year; the decision will be left to Archbishop Thomas Murphy.