Melita sale is near

The arrival of a $1 million donation has the Montana Council of Boy Scouts on the precipice of buying Melita Island as a summer camp for its members.

The council needs to raise $1.5 million by midnight Dec. 31, and they estimate they have $1.4 million right now. Doug Anderson, executive director of the fundraising effort, remains cautiously optimistic.

"It would be a shame to lose it now being so close," said Anderson. "We've had a lot of phone calls promising money since the $1 million donation, and let's hope they come through. Montanans are wonderful people, they're just not rich folks."

The large donation was given by an anonymous couple who "appreciate the values of the Boy Scouts and the island and want to preserve them," said Anderson. This eleventh hour generosity is just the latest in a series of close calls to secure the island for the Boy Scouts.

Scouts began to camp on the island in the 1930s, after the Knights Templar of the Freemasons granted permission. But in 1975, the island Anderson refers to as "65 acres of prime Boy Scout Valhalla" was sold to a corporation that promptly subdivided the land into trophy home properties. Coincidentally, at the same time the Montana economy declined and island properties were too expensive a proposition for most, said Anderson.

Melita was then sold to the Cox family, who planned to build a private retreat there for themselves. Then the family patriarch suffered a serious heart attack and they decided it was safer to build a home overlooking the island. And in 1998, the family agreed to let Boy Scouts use the island for two-week summer camps.

As the Boy Scouts purchase period nears what Anderson hopes is a happy ending, the effort has never been secure. The fundraising endeavor started with a professional firm being hired from Atlanta, but their representative suffered a heart attack 30 days into his tenure. The new agent "didn't know much and cost us a fortune that actually put the council in debt," said Anderson.

Climbing out from their own debt was enough of an impediment to cause council leaders to shelve the Melita Island campaign, but the Phoenix Patrol, a group of middle-aged men who spent summer camp on the island in the 1960s and 1970s, took control of the fundraising effort. Anderson has only been in control of the project the last five months.

Even though Anderson is close, he doesn't expect the owners to extend the deadline because "they've already given us two years," he said.

"My guess is that the island is worth $4 to $5 million just sitting there undeveloped with sticks and rocks," said Anderson. "It's remarkable because this is all a part of a $3.1 million capital campaign to improve all four of the Scouting camps in the state."

Money will also go toward renovating Camp Arcola in the Pintlar Mountains, Camp K-M Ranch north of Lewiston, and the Grizzly Base Camp south of Glacier National Park.

But much of that money is earmarked and cannot be touched until 2005, making Anderson's deadline urgent.

If Anderson fails to raise the money by Friday, projects they have planned for the island will go for naught, such as improvements to the marina that are likely to draw groups from out of the area.

Anderson said the council already has an offer from the Seattle Sea Scouts to train their younger members, as well as some Montana troops, in water skills and boating. But they can only take part with dock renovations.

For more information on the Melita Island campaign, contact Anderson at his Missoula office, 406-721-7911.