Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Harry Kramer lights the fireplace in the spacious Kramer Hall, the dining and conference center for YMCA's Camp Kon-O-Kwee/Spencer. He is retiring after 37 years.

By Brittany McCandless
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette In 1970, the YMCA sent Harry Kramer to close Camp Kon-O-Kwee, a dilapidated boys summer camp with a leaky pool and rundown buildings that were open just 10 weeks a year.

Smiling, he promised to do his best and went to work. Today Camp Kon-O-Kwee/Spencer in Fombell, Beaver County is one the nation's finest facilities of its kind, serving special-need campers of every background, 12 months a year.

In addition to campers and those with special needs, the camp also hosts adventure programs for inner-city, at-risk youths, parent/child camp-outs, senior citizen camping and environmental educational programs for school districts.

Founded in 1926 as a camp just for boys, Camp Kon-O-Kwee began accepting special-needs campers soon after Mr. Kramer and his wife, Barbara, arrived. Today, special needs children make up the bulk of the 17,000 annual campers.

The more than 500-acre site has 85 buildings, including a full medical clinic staffed by UPMC doctors, a four-mile handicapped-accessible nature trail, two pools -- one equipped to lower wheelchairs into the water -- a ropes course amputees can use and a dining hall the size of a ski lodge. Soon it will be a national training center for the Paralympic Games and Special Olympics. To prepare, Arnold Palmer is designing a nine-hole golf course, and members of the Carnegie Mellon robotics departments are creating special handicapped-accessible equipment.

"It's an ongoing miracle," said Mr. Kramer, better known as "Uncle Harry" to tens of thousands of campers. It's not surprising that they call his wife of 45 years "Aunt Barbara."

But this summer, Aunt Barbara won't be running the Trading Post, and Uncle Harry won't be waking campers up with a good morning song. They announced in February they would step down from the camp's day-to-day operations.

To celebrate the Kramers' service, the Kon-O-Kwee/Spencer board of directors has planned a June 2 day of recognition that includes creation of a $1 million trust fund called the "Uncle Harry and Aunt Barbara YMCA Campership Fund" to sponsor disadvantaged children at the camp.

Quite a legacy for a camp people had lost hope in. Then again, it's not too shabby from a man many people had lost faith in.

When he was a child, Mr. Kramer was paralyzed by his own inabilities. His father, a violinist for the Pittsburgh Symphony, died young, leaving behind a wife and five kids. Devastated and without an income, the family became destitute. Suffering from undiagnosed dyslexia, Mr. Kramer stuttered and could not tell his left from his right. Kids teased him, and his teachers shuffled him in with mentally challenged students. He barely spoke for two years.

A compassionate elementary school principal reached out to the boy and brought him to the YMCA on the North Side. He soon thrived as a swimmer. When he went to Camp Kon-O-Kwee for the first time, he found solace. There he didn't have to share a bunk with siblings, and he could eat as much food as he wanted. Soon, the boy who came to camp with a paper bag full of hand-me-down clothes realized he could do anything he put his mind to.

"It gave me such a level of understanding of the need for reaching out to everyone, but especially children with special needs, and giving them the same kinds of opportunities that I had to develop, to overcome and to stretch their limits," he said.

He started by stretching his own. Recognizing his potential, a YMCA director made arrangements for Mr. Kramer to attend George Williams College in Chicago on a conditional basis, despite his poor grades. In college, Mr. Kramer realized he had a learning disability, and after seeking help, he graduated. He married his high school sweetheart, fathered two daughters, and went to work for the YMCA after college.

"He always said as a child he'd be back, even if he just had to wash dishes," said Mrs. Kramer.

But when the camp he loved so much fell into disuse, he knew he was called to do something more.

"I said, 'You're not going to close my slice of heaven,' " Mr. Kramer recalled.

With steadfast determination and a team of volunteers, Mr. and Mrs. Kramer brought Camp Kon-O-Kwee back to life.

The Kramers have established such special-needs camps as Heart Camp, Blind Camp, Burn Camp, Teen Amputation and numerous others. They also host outings for parent-child organizations -- such as Indian Guides and Indian Princess -- senior citizens, corporate retreats and environmental education programs.

In 1991, Mr. Kramer persuaded the Y to purchase the abandoned 200-acre Girl Scout camp next door, and that became Camp Spencer, which specializes in special-needs campers. One such camper, a boy from Illinois who had both legs amputated, came to the camp on scholarship and didn't leave until he climbed to the top of the rock-climbing wall.

"He said, 'Uncle Harry, I can do anything any other boy can do.' And I said, 'Danny, not only that, but you can do more because you don't give up,' " Mr. Kramer said. "Life-changing experiences occur here. I refer to it not only as a camp, but a human growth center."

Then there are the volunteers, whose support and donations have built the 440-foot bridge between the camp sites and the $3 million new dining hall without costing the YMCA a penny.

"We've been instruments," Mr. Kramer said. "It's God guiding us. It's all the volunteers who are brought to us. It's a story about tremendous human kindness."

Heart trouble led to Mr. Kramer's retirement, but the couple, who live on the camp property, will continue volunteering for the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh and Camp Kon-O-Kwee.

Among the scheduled attendees at the Kramers' day of recognition will be KDKA-TV weatherman Jon Burnett, who met the Kramers when he brought his son to camp in the early '90s.

Later, Mr. Burnett brought his daughter, Samantha, to volunteer as a counselor, and soon a romance sparked around the camp fire. Ms. Burnett married her fellow camp counselor this past year.

"There wouldn't be a camp without them, and my daughter wouldn't be married without them," Mr. Burnett said of the Kramers.

In addition to the fund, the board will dedicate the new dining hall, Kramer Hall, to the couple.

"He's one of a kind," Mr. Burnett said. "He's touched the lives of thousands of kids. There will never be another Uncle Harry."