The Very First Summer - 1951

An excited group of sixty college students and a few sponsors came via a Greyhound bus and car caravans to Bernardsville, New Jersey in the early summer of 1951 to the open Camp Shiloh. They stared in awe at the 52 room mansion with a tapestry walled music room and 17 baths—some as large as bedrooms.

As they toured the premises, they were spellbound with its beauty, but heard the cry for cleansing and repair. Exuberant Eddie Grindley shouted with his hearty laugh, urging everyone on with his “we can do it” attitude while handing out buckets of soapy water, hammers and paint brushes.

Noises of hammering, laughter and intermittent wails of pain from smashed fingers echoed across the grounds. Some worked on flooring for tents, others built a kitchen and a dining room in the basement. Still others graciously accepted any chore that called their name. Eddie’s dream awakened into reality.

He’d spent the previous year traveling across the country to raise the money and recruit staff to reach out to the disadvantaged young people of New York City and get them off the streets.
Eddie went to the city in his dilapidated old bus and honked the horn and handed out brochures, offering the street kids an opportunity to get away to the beautiful country-side—away from crime and the hopelessness of street life. They would be transported to a free two week vacation in God’s great outdoors, with an opportunity to play, and learn of a Savior who was willing to die for them.

This gregarious Irishman charmed his followers, arriving with the first bus-load of noisy confusion. They were checked for switch-blades and lice as they got off the bus and assigned to cabins.

I don’t recall any fights the entire summer from these whose life-style had been centered on fighting. Shouts of glee replaced shouts of anger in an atmosphere of peace instead of turmoil.
My husband, Carey Looney, was assigned to go to the farmer’s market several times a week to persuade farmers to either give or sell at greatly reduced prices their left-over produce at the end of the day. Innovative cooks created meals from any and all possible resources.

Bible stories and preaching disclosed how God often chooses the unlikely to accomplish his purposes. Had He not chosen Eddie who was once a drinking, gambling and cheating refugee from Ireland to transform into an example of a beautiful and productive life? Eddie was bent on convincing these youngsters that God also had a plan and purpose for their lives. His legacy lives on.

There were six couples from this group that married as a result of the summer spent together as they shared the common goal of reaching out to unlikely young people. (Carey and I were among those couples.)

Louise Looney
Shiloh Alumni 1951