Photo by Camp Spaulding Photo

Child and Family Services’ Camp Spaulding lost its Kiwanis Hall to snow. Benefactor Horace Blood has offered to help.

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A local philanthropist will donate up to $100,000 to rebuild a collapsed hall at Camp Spaulding in Penacook.

Dr. Horace Blood has offered a challenge grant, which will match every dollar donated toward the project, up to $100,000. Blood was traveling last week and could not be reached.

According to Child and Family Services Development Director Ruth Zax, Blood was one of the first camp counselors at Camp Spaulding, when it was still a YMCA camp in the 1920s. The camp, which serves low income children, has since come under the auspices of Child and Family Services. "He was the first original horse counselor, because he brought the horse to camp," Zax said.

Blood kept in touch with the camp over the years and helped the camp develop an equine program about six years ago.

His recent donation will help rebuild Kiwanis Hall, which was built in the 1920s as one of Camp Spaulding's original buildings. It started out as an open-air dining area, then was enclosed and became the dining hall. During a 2000 expansion, the camp built a new dining hall and the former

kitchen became a girls' changing area. The former dining hall was used for arts and crafts, skits, talent show practice and rainy day activities. Program Director Ed Orlowski said that until 2000, the building was "the centerpiece of camp." It was the largest building on the campus, and held a big bell that signaled meals and changing activities.

Zax said that by this winter, Kiwanis Hall was among the few buildings left un-renovated. When the camp expanded from eight acres to 56 acres in 2000, it built a new recreation center with a bathhouse, dining room and kitchen, and built some new cabins. Kiwanis Hall was "put on the back burner," she said.

But this winter, the old hall collapsed under the weight of the snow. Camp staff were forced to remove the debris before the summer and develop a plan for rebuilding.

According to Orlowski, the camp hopes to build two new buildings. One would be an open air game and sports pavilion, which would house a basketball court and a semi-enclosed theater. The second building would have changing rooms, bathrooms and showers. Orlowski said staff hope to break ground in September, once this year's campers leave.

The cost for the two buildings is expected to be around $580,000, Zax said. Some money will come from insurance and some could come from grants, but most will be raised through private donations.

Blood is a well-known philanthropist who has previously donated to other causes around the Concord area. After a pine tree grove at YMCA Camp Belknap was damaged by a rainstorm in 1999, Blood offered a $10,000 matching gift. He issued a matching donation challenge to restore the Capitol Center for the Arts, and also contributed to the restoration of the 19th century clock tower and bell on Main Street.