Camp Timber-lee: Delavan businessman to buy, keep site open
Camp Timber-lee in East Troy
EAST TROY, Wis. - An Illinois-based university on Thursday, March 2 announced plans to sell Camp Timber-lee in East Troy to a Delavan businessman – avoiding its closure.
As a result, the site will remain up and running for all previously planned events, including Burn Camp. The popular summer camp for youth burn victims faced an uncertain future when Trinity International University announced its plans to close the site.
"There's really probably no place like it that can replicate what we've done for the last 28 years at Camp Timber-lee," said Michael Wos, executive director of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin Charitable Foundation. The organization puts on Burn Camp. "This is a place where kids with these severe burn injuries can go to just be kids and not worry about the world around them, their appearance or anything else. They just get to be kids."
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In February, TIU announced the impending closure as part of a plan to "reimagine" the school's future. After hearing the news, Delavan businessman Gregg Kunes made an offer.
"When I saw that Camp Timber-lee would be closing, I heard the Holy Spirit tell me, ‘That can’t happen,’" Kunes said in a statement. "I've been a supporter of Camp Timber-lee since I came to Walworth County in 1996."
Both Kunes and TIU hope to close the deal by April 1.