-
Catholic Youth Camp better known now as "CYC" began in 1961. The idea first started in 1960. Fr. Nelo Leto had a young person ask him for help to go to Y camp. Fr. Leto gave him an even better option "How about I start a camp for you?" Later that day, Msgr. Peter O'Leary handed the associate pastor a letter he just recieved from the Iowa 4-H Foundation advertising camping facilities for rent. "This has to be God's providence," Fr. Leto asserted of the mail's timing. The next summer, Catholic Youth Camp began...And God saw that it was good.
Fr. Leto was the first person to ever say "yes" to Catholic Youth Camp, but nowhere near the last. Just like the tiny mustard seed, Catholic Youth Camp sprouted from the humblest of beginnings, and has grown into one of the largest camps of its type in the nation. We thank God for blessing us with a faith-filled (and faith-fueled) place to call home any summer we would like. The thousands of smiles, prayers, songs, laughs, hugs, and friendships would be impossible to recount, but the story of hoe Catholic Youth Camp came to be, expand, and flourish is not. With God, all things are possible.
The first summer of CYC they had a grand total of 150 campers and 28 adult men and women as volunteer counselors.
In 2015 we had over 1600 campers and nearly 200 people apply to be volunteer counselors.
Due to the constant growing community of Catholic Youth Camp in 1983 Fr. Thomas "Tank" DeCarlo began looking for a better option than the 4-H camp. There was a very short lived second CYC that only lasted two years. Finally in 1983 Catholic Youth Camp no longer would have to rent a home every summer. They purchased a 17.18 acre area on Lake Panorama in Panora, IA. Later to be known as The St. Thomas More Center.
Camp has continually grown over the years and we hope that continues. For 54 years campers have been "having fun in the name of God" and it is our hope that they will never have to stop having that fun. There are a million stories to be told about all the great people who have been affiliated with this camp and all the people who have kept it going over the years. This is just a very brief history.
Many of the details on this page are from excerpts for the CYC 50th Anniversary History Book written by Drew Kruzich & Linda Allen. The book is full of great memories and photos, and the entire story about how this place that means so much to so many came to be. If you are ever visiting the St. Thomas More Center we always have a copy handy to share our story, the story of the great people who through very hard work created and kept up the place we call home.
-