on the upper flat, there is an outdoor chapel,
a beautiful chapel surrounded by nature,
accessible from INCA nook and the activity flat.
the camp holds a morning sunday service for
staff and stay-over campers, a wednesday VESPERS
service and a friday night CANDLELIGHT service
in the chapel.
each service is unique and different.
every service can be heard as the sweet voices
sing out, above the treetops.

the sunday morning service is much like that of
sunday church, though a little more lively with
all of the happy and cheerful songs and sermons.

the wednesday VESPERS is an exciting and fast-
paced service, full of mid-week chatter, sermon
and song. the service is closed with an all camp
snack on the activity flat.

friday night CANDLELIGHT is the most intense and
memorable of the services. as the week comes to a close,
campers and staff gather together for one last time
in the chapel. there are slow songs of times past, memories
to keep and a sermon of the same. the front of the chapel
is decorated with a series of candles, lit one at a time,
with an explanation of what the candle represents.
each camper, and staff then walkes to the front, by
village, takes a small candle and bible, and lights their
candle from the flame of one of the representing candles.
the campers and staff then walk out to the activity flat
and form a triangle, the symbol of the YMCA (representing
mind, body and spirit). once all members are out, the Lords
prayer is said. one by one, the candles are extinguished.
taps is sung.
the members then return to their cabents, not speaking
a word until they awake the next day, for their last meal
together as the BUNCH.

the camp celebrates christianity in other ways as well.
before every meal, a prayer is said (or sung), every
morning the villages partake in a morning devotion,
and every evening, the counselors say an evening devotion
to their cabent, whether that be a story, prayer or
any other type of spiritual thought.

RAGS AND LEATHERS

the YMCA offers a program to enhance a persons
well-being spiritually, nationally and within themselves.
this program is called rags and leathers.
the program, basically allows the participant to
make a series of promises to themselves, to their
country, and to God. each year, after the participant
has fulfilled thier promises, they can move on to the
next level, receiving either a leather good (for the
younger campers) or a rag (for the older). there are
three levels for the leathers and seven for the rags.
at CAMP FITCH, the process of recieving the rag
or leather takes place in the form of a ceremony.
there is a place deep in the woods, on the opposite
end of boys camp, which houses leathers point and
raggers point.
there is a definate spirit watching over raggers point.
you see, over the many years that camp has occupied
the land, the upper flat has been a victim of erosion.
if you look real close, in the trees along the cliff
you will see the remains of old tent platforms.
some a little intact, but most, broken and crumbling
over the cliff edge. some have completely fallen
and rest on the cliff side.
raggers point, with it's symbols and cross resting on
the edge of the cliff, seems to have been saved
from the erosion completely.
all around the point, trees have fallen,
platforms have broken, and earth has eroded.
only the point stands unharmed.
only the point remains an untouched place,
along the edge.