A Veteran Owned Business
A Veteran Owned Business
The site has a rich camping history. It began in the 1930’s when the Merrick family established a camp for boys from the greater Washington area.
In the 1950’s the Merrick family bequeathed the camp to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington which turned it into a camp for deaf children. During the 1970’s, the Archdiocese experienced difficulty maintaining the camp and its buildings began to deteriorate. The church officials approached the Lions of Washington, D.C. and the Maryland counties of Calvert, Charles, Montgomery, Prince Georges and St. Marys (District 22-C) for help and proposed an arrangement to jointly run the Camp for the Deaf. In 1979, delegates at the Lions Convention in Virginia Beach approved this arrangement.
In 1988 the Lions of District 22-C officially approved making the camp a Lions district project and leased the camp from the Archdiocese (with the option to buy). The camp was renamed “Lions Camp Merrick”.
The mission of the camp was also changed to serve not only the deaf but also visually impaired children and adults. The camp was incorporated in the State of Maryland in 1990, became a 501(c)(3) organization and a Constitution and By-Laws was written. In 1997, the Waldorf Lions Foundation purchased the camp for approximately $700,000 and leased it to the Lions Clubs of District 22-C for $10.00 for 50 years. In 1998, the American Diabetes Association sold their camp in the Baltimore area (Camp Glyndon) and, at their request, entered into an arrangement with Lions Camp Merrick to expand its summer camping program to include Camp Glyndon’s and to jointly run a summer camp for children diagnosed with diabetes. Lions Camp Merrick assumed the entire responsibility for Camp Glyndon in 2005. Camp Glyndon at Lions Camp Merrick is supported by the American Diabetes Association.
Lions Camp Merrick
3650 Rick Hamilton Place
Nanjemoy, MD 20662
301-645-6030
www.lionscampmerrick.org
