Camps & Services Update
For those interesting in Rotary Camps and Services Executive Director, Matt McDonough's presentation from last week, below are a link to the recording, his slides and a summary.
Rotary Camps & Services Update at 12-2-25 Rotary Club Meeting.mp4
RCS Rotary Club Presentation 12-2-25.pptx
Rotary Camps and Services – 70 years of service and news on our future
This year marks a remarkable milestone for Rotary Camps and Services as we celebrate 70 years of community service. It’s also an opportunity to reflect on our past, acknowledge the people who have guided our work, and share important news about our future. To begin, I’d like to ask our current Board to stand and be recognized. And now, anyone who has ever served on the Camps and Services Board—please stand as well. Thank you all for your dedication and service.
As many of you know, the Rotary Club of Traverse City was founded in 1920. Just a few years later, a visionary Rotarian, Clarence Greilick, saw an opportunity to acquire land southeast of Traverse City for a youth camp. In 1923, that vision became reality when the Community Camps Association—the precursor to Rotary Camps and Services—purchased the land that would become Camp Greilick.
In 1955, Rotary Camps and Services was formally established. That same year, the title to Camp Greilick was transferred, and a long-term lease was formed with the Boy Scouts. Also in 1955, the organization began exploring real estate on Bass Lake in Green Lake Township as a possible camp for local Girl Scouts. This work culminated in the 1956 purchase of land that became Camp Saki, accompanied by a lease agreement with the Girl Scouts.
One of the most pivotal moments in our history came in 1976, when oil and gas were discovered beneath Camp Greilick. Camps and Services leadership negotiated extraordinary lease terms—securing a 40% royalty when the industry standard was between 12 and 17 percent. Those revenues led to the creation of Rotary Charities in 1977, a foundation designed to build a long-term corpus to benefit the community. Since then, Rotary Charities has awarded more than $76 million in grants and today maintains assets exceeding $51 million.
In 1989, Rotary Camps purchased the Park Place Hotel out of bankruptcy, undertook extensive renovations, and later sold it to a private partnership in 1996. Around that same time, the organization played a key role in launching the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, holding early conservation easements until the Conservancy became established.
In 1993, the estate of Howard and Mary Edwards gifted 800 acres of land to Rotary Camps and Services—an extraordinary legacy. A few years later, in 1997, Camps and Services funded a study that led to the creation of Homestretch, an organization focused on affordable housing in our region. In 2001, Camps and Services played a catalytic role in launching the Crosstown Project to make single-family homes available to income-qualified buyers.
In the early 2000s, Camps and Services undertook a significant number of conservation and land-management efforts, beginning with the Edwards properties. Much of the Edwards land formed a nearly square-mile block crossed by East Creek, an important tributary to the Boardman River. Working with the State of Michigan, Camps and Services completed a complex land exchange that consolidated state parcels and created what is now the 560-acre East Creek Reserve—a publicly accessible working forest preserve.
Another 80-acre ecology-rich parcel containing a rare fen was donated to the Conservancy to be protected as a nature preserve. Forty additional acres were gifted to Paradise Township as an expansion of Mayfield Pond Park. The remaining 120 acres were sold with permanent conservation easements.
During this period, Rotary Camps also placed conservation easements on all major land holdings, including East Creek Reserve, Camp Greilick, and Camp Saki—protecting more than 1,600 acres of forest, shoreline, and wildlife habitat.
In 2006, the organization played a major role in acquiring two initial properties that formed the core campus of what is now the Discovery Center and Pier. A decade later, with support from Rotary Charities, we acquired Traverse City’s former coal dock and coal storage lot. Shortly thereafter, we helped the Discovery Center acquire the adjacent parcel commonly known as the old Family Video property.
The late 2010s were another period of intense activity. In 2016, the Boy Scouts notified us that they intended to terminate their lease at Camp Greilick due to declining attendance and the burden of managing the camp. The Girl Scouts made the same decision regarding Camp Saki in 2018. That same year, plans were developed to sell 90% of Camp Saki to Green Lake Township—a sale completed in 2022. Also in 2018, Camps and Services in partnership with Rotary Charities led a major restructuring and relaunch of the Discovery Center, including an overhaul of its governance structure and board.
In 2018, Rotary Camps and Services developed an ambitious plan to repurpose Camp Greilick as an Outdoor Recreation and Education Center—offering training in mountain biking, skiing, paddling, wilderness skills, and more, while opening the property for public access and offering camping and cabin and dining all rentals. Although the plan received a 6–1 approval from the Township Planning Commission, strong opposition from some Rennie Lake property owners led the Township Board to impose limitations that made the project financially unworkable. As a result, we withdrew the plan and closed GOREC.
In the years that followed, we worked to ensure the land would remain protected and publicly accessible. We sold the northern 200 acres to the Conservancy, and the southern 300 acres will soon be sold to the City of Traverse City—ultimately opening all 500 acres to the public.
Meanwhile, progress at Discovery Pier has been very positive. Rotary Camps and Services provided organizational support and financial resources to help transform the old coal dock into a barrier-free public waterfront space and hub for Great Lakes education and recreation. We funded the pavilion and, this year, provided an interest-free construction loan to support the most recent set of improvements—many funded by reimbursement-based public grants—including new docks, an adaptive kayak launch, a waterfront equipment crane, and restroom facility.
The capstone project at Discovery Pier is the Freshwater Research and Innovation Center—a 40,000-square-foot facility that will co-locate education, research, and innovation in the rapidly growing field of blue and marine technologies. Following a $15 million investment by the State of Michigan, Rotary Camps and Services stepped forward with a $3 million grant that has since leveraged an additional $9 million.
In 2021, recognizing that the landscape had shifted dramatically—particularly with changes at our two major camp properties—Camps and Services launched a strategic planning effort to chart our future. Two of the plan’s immediate objectives were to launch GOREC and support the relaunch of the Discovery Center organization—initiatives whose outcomes I’ve just described.
The more significant aim of the strategic plan was to look outward: to identify emerging community needs and explore whether Rotary Camps and Services might fill a role in addressing them. We conducted interviews with sixteen community leaders, and two needs surfaced far above the rest: affordable housing and childcare. A distant third included land conservation, environmental protection, and youth activities.
What we learned from this process was clear: many strong, capable organizations are already leading in these areas. There was no meaningful void for us to fill—no niche that another organization wasn’t already addressing effectively.
We then turned inward, reviewing the evolution of our mission over the past several decades and reflecting on what we have accomplished: the creation of Rotary Charities; our roles in launching the Conservancy, Homestretch, and the Discovery Center; our extensive land conservation work; the establishment of public nature preserves and reserves; and our leadership in creating the Freshwater Research and Innovation Center. It is an extraordinary record of impact, service, and stewardship.
After significant deliberation, we concluded that there was no compelling new role for Rotary Camps and Services to assume—and no strong reason for the organization to continue “being” simply for its own sake. As such, we have made the thoughtful decision to sunset the organization.
There is still much work ahead as we wind down operations. But before we close this chapter, we intend to celebrate the rich history, legacy, and achievements of Rotary Camps and Services. This summer, under the pavilion at Discovery Pier, we will host a celebration of all things Camps and Services. For those of you who have served on the Board or committees, lent your time and talent over the years, or have stories and memories to share—we want to hear from you. Your stories will help us honor this remarkable legacy as we celebrate together.
--- as presented by Matt McDonough, Executive Director, Rotary Camps & Services, December 2, 2025
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