Photo courtesy of Aaron Knight.
From left, Charlie Dykes, Noah Bode, Claire Gardner, Chris Dykes and Garen Gardner hold signs announcing that Hargis Christian Camp met its fundraising goal to keep the camp in operation.
Hargis Christian Camp President Aaron Knight doesn’t have a recipe for success. He simply trusts the Lord.
He and his wife, Kellie, had 25 months to raise $2.2 million by the end of 2023. Their mission was to pay off their property lease to save Hargis Christian Camp, a beloved landmark of Shelby County for the last 60 years.
Not only did they achieve their goal, but they did it early.
“We raised $2.5 million a week and a day short of 25 months,” Aaron Knight said.
Located in Chelsea at the base of Signal Mountain, Hargis Christian Camp’s mission is to make Jesus known by bringing people together at Christian conferences, retreats and events.
“Over the last two years, 12,000 to 15,000 people from 28 states and four countries visited Hargis, which resulted in 450 decisions to follow Christ,” Knight said.
First opened in 1964, Hargis Christian Camp offers outdoor activities like fishing, hiking, swimming, gaga ball pits and basketball. The camp’s worship center, the Joshua D. Wright Auditorium, has a large indoor playground, and Giltner Hall, the camp’s oldest lodge, has a game room.
Christmas at the Camp was most recently held with cookie decorating, a Nativity hayride and games.
Knight, who grew up near Hargis Lake, said his family knew the Hargis family. He recalled many fond memories of playing at the camp.
“I learned to swim there,” he said “The aquatic center is named after Pepper Edwards. She taught swimming lessons to a lot of kids in Shelby County.”
However, Knight’s purpose behind saving the camp went much deeper.
“When I was a teenager in the early 1990s, I started doing drugs and went to jail several times,” he said. “I was homeless and lived in about 25 different places around that time.”
Knight committed to his faith when he was 30, after which he went into ministry work. He served as pastor at Redemption Church in Chelsea for six years, until he stepped down in 2016 to run Hargis full-time. Kellie serves as summer camp director and his son, Drew, and son-in-law, Lathen Megginson, also work at Hargis.
“They’re building the camp. I just watch,” Aaron Knight joked.
When Knight learned in 2018 that the camp, which had been owned since 1999 by the YMCA, would be going up for sale, he knew he had to save it. Doug Eddleman, the president of Eddleman Properties, Inc., purchased the land that housed the camp in January 2019.
Knight said he began bringing Chick-fil-A biscuits and Krispy Kreme donuts, as well as cards and letters, on a bi-weekly basis to Eddleman’s Mountain Brook office in hopes of getting a meeting. After several months, Knight said he got the meeting, soon after which he was quoted the price.
I feel like the people in Chelsea and the Shelby County community have the biggest hearts.
Aaron Knight
Throughout their fundraising efforts, the Knights received donations from as far away as California, as well as free renovation services like paving and roofing. So far, they have been able to repair seven out of the 12 buildings on the property.
“I feel like the people in Chelsea and the Shelby County community have the biggest hearts,” he said.
Knight said he never had any doubt the entire time they were trying to save the camp.
“I had a sense of peace that everything was going to be fine,” Knight said. “God had already come through for us the last two years.”
Knight said the journey in saving the camp has been about obedience.
“I just keep putting everything in the Lord’s hands and keep showing up,” he said. “It’s all in God’s hands, and that’s the best place to be.”
For more information on how to donate or help with the camp’s renovation efforts, visit hargischristiancamp.org.
