Five Generations, One Camp: The Rich’s Enduring Legacy at YMCA Camp Eberhart
For some families, camp is a summer memory. For the Rich/Lippincott/Gardner/Kapla/Riddle families, YMCA Camp Eberhart is something more. It is a shared language, a family landmark, a place of independence and belonging, and a thread that has connected them for generations.
“When anybody says Camp, we’re talking about Camp Eberhart,” said Margaret Gardner Rich. “No question.”
Thirty-six family members across five generations have called YMCA Camp Eberhart their own, from Margaret’s great-aunt and great-uncle to her parents, aunts, uncle, siblings, children, nieces, nephews, cousins, great nieces, and great nephews. Camp was not simply a place one person loved; it became part of the family’s shared identity.
Margaret’s own Camp story began when she was just six years old. She attended younger than most campers at the time because her older sisters were already there. She still remembers her very first cabin assignment: Cabin One, Unit One, Bunk One. “I thought that was very impressive,” she said.
Some memories remain especially vivid: Cold morning swim lessons in Corey Lake, clean cabin awards that meant a Jeep ride with Coop to Richelieu Lodge for free ice cream, and evening programs where Coop told camp stories that became part of Camp Eberhart legend. “Coop was really special,” she said. “Everybody revered him.”
What YMCA Camp Eberhart gave Margaret was something deeper—something she could carry into her own life, pass down through her family, and cling to in times of both joy and grief.
“It certainly influenced my life, as it did my children’s lives,” she said. “It gave you a whole lot of independence. You were responsible and independent as far as yourself and your actions.”
Camp, she said, was a place where children were expected to contribute, to take responsibility, and to become more self-assured.
That spirit extended to her son Jonathan. Jonathan experienced a chronic physical disability from a young age. However, this did not define him, as he was a Scout and an outdoorsman who loved camping, hiking, swimming, and sailing. Camp was already his world before he ever set foot there.
In the summer of 2003, Jonathan was 16 years old and attended Camp Eberhart as a counselor-in-training. For a young man who had grown up on Camp stories, it was everything he had hoped for. People were good to him. He belonged there.
At one point, Camp staff asked Jonathan to stay and help in the kitchen. Because Jonathan had always faced some physical challenges, Margaret wondered how he would manage.
“I did inquire how they thought he could help,” she said. “They said, ‘Don’t you worry. He helps.’ And so that was kind of wonderful.”
To Margaret, that response reflected the heart of Camp: A place where a young man was not defined by limitation, but welcomed for who he was and what he could contribute.
One of Margaret’s favorite memories is from the day she and her husband, Dave, dropped Jonathan off at Camp. He stood near the CIT cabins in his T-shirt and shorts, smiling and waving.
“He wanted us to go away,” she said. “‘Please leave. I’m fine.’”
It was pure Jonathan. Happy, independent, exactly where he belonged.
Sadly, Jonathan passed away in October 2003. “Thank goodness his last summer, he was there,” Margaret said. “He had probably among the best times in his life at camp.”
His family wanted to honor his memory in a way that reflected his spirit, his joy, and the place that had welcomed him and so many of his family before him. They spoke with Camp leadership about what might be meaningful. Margaret thought back to the campfires from her own years at Camp—closing ceremonies, awards, friendship, reflection, and the feeling of gathering together at the end of something meaningful. A fire circle felt right.
“Around a fire is a real special thing anyway,” she said.
The Jonathan Rich Fire Circle was dedicated in June 2005.
While it carries Jonathan’s name, Margaret sees it as part of a larger legacy at YMCA Camp Eberhart.
“It’s not just the Jonathan Rich Fire Circle,” she said. “It’s really the whole family fire circle.”
Her hope is that today’s campers experience the same sense of joy and camaraderie Jonathan felt when he gathered there—sitting beside a best friend, looking across the fire at others they have grown close to, and remembering what they discovered during their time at Camp.
“I hope kids feel the friendships,” she said. “The memory of what they’ve earned and learned while they’re at camp. And thinking, ‘Gosh, I hope I get to come back next year.’”
For Margaret and her family, supporting YMCA Camp Eberhart is an expression of gratitude for a place that shaped them, strengthened them, welcomed them, and gave them memories that still live close to the surface.
“Camp is really magical, actually,” she said. “It really is kind of magical.”
Help More Kids Experience the Gift of Camp
For Margaret Gardner Rich and her family, YMCA Camp Eberhart has been far more than a place to spend the summer.
It has been a place of independence, friendship, reflection, confidence, responsibility, and belonging. Camp has shaped childhoods, strengthened family bonds, and created memories that continue to live on through stories, traditions, and places like the Jonathan Rich Fire Circle.
That is the lasting power of Camp.
When you support YMCA Camp Eberhart, you help ensure that more children have the opportunity to experience that same sense of growth and connection. Gifts to Camp help preserve meaningful traditions, strengthen programs, care for the spaces that generations of campers have loved, and open the door for future campers to discover who they are in a place that welcomes them fully.
To learn more about YMCA Camp Eberhart or how to support its mission, visit campeberhart.ymcagm.org or follow the YMCA of Greater Michiana on social media.
