Edmund Rice Camps
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Edmund Rice Camps (often referred to as ERC or Eddie Rice Camps) is a charitable volunteer organisation closely associated with the Congregation of Christian Brothers, and inspired by the work of Edmund Ignatius Rice. Edmund Rice Camps works to provide opportunities for recreation, challenge and growth to young participants for whom there would otherwise be no such opportunities.
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[edit] History of the Edmund Rice Camps
The first two 'Edmund Rice' camps took place at Parade College in Melbourne, Australia, in January 1981, as a form of community outreach for the students of Parade, and as a way of sharing the extensive resources of Parade left unused during the Australian summer.[1] These first camps catered for two groups of children: one for at-risk boys from Melbourne, and another camp for refugee children who had escaped with their families from Communist Vietnam.
Persons associated with the Christian Brothers helped to spread the concept of these camps to other states of Australia and overseas. The first Edmund Rice Camp in Tasmania took place in January 1985,[2] and the first beyond Australian shores was held near Dunedin, New Zealand in May 1991.[3]
[edit] Edmund Rice
Edmund Rice was born to a farming family, under the shadow of the Penal laws in June 1762, at Westcourt, Callan, County Kilkenny, Ireland. He attended the commercial academy in Kilkenny for about two years after secretly receiving his elementary education at the local 'hedge school' in Callan.
In 1779 Edmund was apprenticed to his uncle, Michael Rice, in the business of supplying all the needs of ships that plied their trade across the Atlantic between Europe and the eastern coast of North America. By his late twenties, through his entrepreneurial skills, he had earned enough money to make himself and his family comfortable for life.
Edmund married Mary Elliott, the daughter to a prosperous Waterford businessman, in 1786. After three short years of marriage, Mary suffered a tragic accident, gave birth to a handicapped daughter, also called Mary, and died shortly after. Edmund was devastated. After a period of reflection he turned to his special vocation, which was to provide dignity for the poor, especially through education.
So, as a 40-year old widower and a successful businessman in Waterford on Ireland's southeast coast, Edmund Rice changed course radically. He sold off his business interests and started a primary school for a few poor boys in a converted stable, with a room for himself above the makeshift classrooms.
During the following year, he used more of his funds to put up a larger building in the city's working-class district. In 1802 Edmund was joined by two companions, Thomas Grosvenor and Patrick Finn, and the three began to live a form of community life in rooms over the Stable School in New Street. The men shared his vision where they combined a semi-monastic life with the hard work of teaching unruly boys under primitive conditions.
All of Edmund's educational activities were illegal in the eyes of the 'authorities' in Ireland. Most Irish Catholics were effectively cut off from education and consequently cut off from social and political progress. By founding schools and teaching congregations, Edmund Rice, like Daniel O' Connell, was a liberator. That is one reason why O'Connell greatly admired the man he called "patriarch of the monks of the West.". Appropriately, therefore, Edmund's first Dublin Schools in North Richmond Street were named the O'Connell Schools.
But all these achievements came at a great personal and mental distress. So, in 1838, Edmund laid down the onerous office of Superior General and retired to Mount Sion, Waterford. Edmund died on the 29th August, 1844. On October 6,1996, Edmund Rice was beatified by Pope John Paul II. His vision continues to live on through the works of the Christian Brothers, the Presentation Brothers, and those involved with the Edmund Rice Network.
[edit] Edmund Rice Camps Today
Relatively independent Edmund Rice Camps organisations are now active in all states of Australia as well as in New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, England, Kenya and Tanzania. The first Edmund Rice Camp in Kolkata, India took place at the end of November 2006, and steps are being taken to formalise similar camps in Chicago, in the United States.[4]
[edit] Mission
The volunteer leaders on the camps are young adults from the community. The participants on an Edmund Rice Camp come from diverse backgrounds and situations, but all benefit from an involvement with the camps. Participants are invited to attend Edmund Rice Camps based on referrals from a range of sources including schools, government agencies and other organisations. Referrals arise in a variety of circumstances. These may include social, economic or emotional hardship. Alternatively, participants may simply benefit from a break in their normal lives.
A fundamental characteristic of Edmund Rice Camps is the one-to-one ratio maintained between 'leaders' and children.
[edit] Organisation
The status of Edmund Rice Camps worldwide varies, for there is no worldwide structure, but rather a series of localised and largely independent volunteer groups. The majority of these organsations are incorporated, not-for-profit groups (and hence are not owned by the Christian Brothers as such). There are exceptions such as the Edmund Rice Camps in Townsville, Queensland, where ERC is a ministry of the Diocese of Townsville. In countries where the movement is tiny or quite informal, the whole impetus for the running of these children's camps is in the hands of individual Christian Brothers and Edmund Rice Volunteers and has no independent legal status. 'Edmund Rice Camps' in Tanzania and Kenya, where the Christian Brothers are highly active, are two examples.
Another exception are the camps based in Cork, Ireland. While all Irish ERC activities are coordinated from Dublin, the Cork "Edmund Rice Action Camps" are run under the auspices of the Presentation Brothers, the other congregation founded by Edmund Rice.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Joyce Williams, ‘For 57 boys school was perfect place for a holiday’, The Advocate (Melbourne), January 29, 1981, p. 9.
- ^ http://www.edmundrice.org/dispatches/content/50209.html
- ^ 'Kiwi Camps kick off', Rice Grains (newsletter of Edmund Rice Camps Victoria) No. 11, June 1991
- ^ http://www.edmundrice.org.au/Edmund_Rice_Camps/Camps_Worldwide/Development_of_Camps_in_America/
