In 1960, Youth Development International, Jim Vaus’ ministry to kids in Spanish Harlem, was looking for a property to set up a camp. Ninety miles outside New York City, it found a heavily-wooded, 400-acre tract with a 50-acre man-made lake near Glen Spey, New York. With the support of George Champion, Chairman of the Board of Chase Manhattan Bank, they bought the property.  Lake Champion had its first campers in 1961.

Youth Development International sold the camp to Teen Challenge, another NYC ministry, in 1972. Teen Challenge used the camp for ministry, especially for those suffering from drug-related problems, but by the early 1980's they were only using a small part of the camp. Teen Challenge put the camp up for sale in 1985.

Young Life purchased the camp in March of 1986, and on June 21st, 150 campers and their leaders began using all the original facilities. Since that time, fundraising has enabled significant improvements and expansion at Lake Champion, including a state of the art dining hall, four dormitories, a tiered auditorium, a swimming pool, and upgrades throughout camp. Today Lake Champion can accommodate 570 campers, leaders and support staff.  Visit our development page to see the current renovations and exciting new projects planned for the future improvement and expansion of Lake Champion.

Each summer Lake Champion has over 5,000 guests visit the camp.  The summer schedule is typically comprised of ten weeks of high school outreach and two weeks of junior high school outreach.  Leadership, family, and adult camps fill out the summer.   Two of the high school outreach weeks are specifically targeted for urban kids and one is an outreach towards teenage mothers.  Lake Champion also serves nearly 14,000 school-year guests primarily for weekend camps.  The schedule includes camps on almost every weekend from Labor Day to Memorial Day with weeklong camps in May.  Use of the camp for short, mid-week retreats and training sessions is on the rise as over half of the school season weeks have some kind of group function occurring.  Young Life groups makeup about half of the school year attendance, with church and other Christian ministries accounting for the remaining visitors.

Young Life believes that camp should be an experience that will take young people out of their daily environment into a new environment free from distractions, expectations, and stress.  Risk and adventure distinctive to the location stretch teenagers to take on challenges they'd never try otherwise.  Lake Champion’s activities are designed to challenge young people to step beyond their comfort zone, to learn to trust and succeed.

 Full Snack Bar
 Espresso Bar
 The BLOB!
 Power Tubing behind one of our two jet boats    
 Mountain Biking On 3 Trails
 70 foot Three Person Screamer
 Two High Ropes Courses
 Low Ropes Course
 Expansive Climbing Wall
 Double 800’ Zip Lines
 Mountain Boarding
 Shop at the Camp Store
 Two Disc Golf Courses
 Two Sand Volleyball Courts
 Pool & Hot Tub
 Great Fishing
 Game Room with Billiards, Ping Pong, Shuffleboard, Foosball & Air Hockey
 Indoor Full Size Gym
 Canoes, Kayaks and Paddleboats

Check out pictures and descriptions of all our activities!

Lake Champions is in the middle of executing our Master Plan renovations and new construction to ensure another 20 plus years of effective outreach to adolescents. Several significant pieces of the master plan’s infrastructure remain to be built. The most critical needs are the addition of more indoor recreation space, a larger snack bar, and an expanded camp store which are slated for completion in June 2009. Soon fundraising will begin to provide more living space for our Assignment Team families and increase the capacity of the camp to 470 campers and leaders by adding two new 48 person dormitories. Other important future projects include the addition on a new pool complex, coffee house and park as well as a new “camp” ride and expansion of the administrative offices.