Camp Mystic, the girls’ summer camp in Texas where 27 young campers and counselors died in flooding in July, plans to reopen next summer, a decision that has shocked and divided the once tight-knit community of Mystic alumni and parents.
The camp’s owners announced their intentions in two emails sent hours apart on Monday, one to the families of the girls who died, and one to a much broader group of past campers and their families, many of whom remain fiercely loyal to the camp’s leadership.
“We are not only rebuilding cabins and trails, but also a place where laughter, friendship and spiritual growth will continue to flourish,” the email to past campers read. “We look forward to welcoming you back inside the green gates.”
Camp owners opened a second site in 2020, near the original location along the Guadalupe River, which is the campus that will reopen next year.
The question of whether the camp should reopen has roiled the Mystic community for weeks. One child, Cile Steward, 8, remains missing. The Texas Legislature has passed new laws to address camp safety, with an emotional push from the families of the children who died in the July 4 floods that devastated the Hill Country of Central Texas. But questions remain about what happened in the early morning hours of the Independence Day catastrophe, and many families have deeply opposed a reopening.
The messages sent on Monday, which included plans to erect a memorial on Mystic grounds in honor of the girls who died there, prompted immediate waves of shock and anger among the families, several parents said on Tuesday. They also said that they had received almost no other communication from the camp in recent months.
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The post Camp Mystic Will Reopen Over Objections From Parents of the Dead appeared first on New York Times.
