Campers play basketball Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015, at The Ranch, one of the Pine Cove Christian Camp campuses near Lake Palestine west of Tyler. Established in 1968, Pine Cove now hosts almost 30,000 campers at its nine camps near Tyler and Columbus. Andrew D. Brosig/Tyler Morning Telegraph

Bill McKenzie and a group of friends sat for hours in a boat in a small lake just outside of Tyler, looking for a way to serve God.

The year was 1964 and McKenzie, an aeronautical engineer, began to feel a calling to build what he called “a showplace for God’s glory,” according to the Pine Cove blog.

“Just like most camps get started, we had a founder,” Director of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships Jason Wallace said. “He had been involved in his church in Dallas and seen the benefit of families and kids going away and spending a weekend together and being out in creation.”

The lake was situated in the middle of some property the McKenzie family owned in the woods that would become the future shores of Lake Palestine, which was completed in 1962 and expanded in 1969.

When McKenzie’s father, Alex, gifted the land, they had no way of knowing that Lake Palestine would eventually grow to within walking distance from the camp itself.

“His dad had some property over here and he somehow convinced him to give it to him,” Wallace said. “He started bringing people out here and turned it into a (nonprofit) almost 50 years ago now.”

The main road through Pine Cove is named Pop McKenzie Road in honor Alex McKenzie.

With the land in hand, Bill just needed to raise money. He and his father took out a $150,000 loan and raised an additional $250,000 through a bond package put together by people who believed in their mission.

During the first week of camp, 18 children attended.Now, 50 years later, the camp employs 1,500 college students each summer to help with the more than 1,000 campers.

“We started off like a lot of camps — you have some families that come and traditions begin,” Wallace said. “In a sense we’re not very traditional though. Our founder was very type A and driven, so now we have six properties here under the umbrella of Pine Cove.”

Wallace said that driven attitude led the camp to chase new, innovative ways to bring families and children together — while still maintaining their foundation built on faith.

Each of the Tyler camps are separated by age group, and one is set aside for the entire family. Pine Cove also operates “Camp in the City” in over 50 cities across the country, as well as other camps across Texas and some being built in South Carolina.

“The Woods” the original camp, also is the one dedicated to family activities.

“The biggest tradition we have, is we do something called our camp name,” Wallace said. “Every one of our full-time summer staff has a camp name. We do it as kind of a way to make camp fun and give you a purpose.”

The naming ceremony takes place the Sunday before campers arrive. The 1,500 college students working as counselors and staff get on stage and are broken into small groups. They are then given seven minutes to talk about themselves and tell stories. At the end of the seven minutes, their group decides on a name.

“Basically the idea is, you meet kids for the first time on a Sunday and you don’t have anything in common, you don’t know them, they don’t know you, but it gives you something to instantly bond over,” Wallace said. “My camp name is Payless.”

Wallace has had his camp name for 13 years, dating back to his first summers at Pine Cove as a college student.

Every morning the campers will participate in Bible studies before moving on to the daily activities. The activities vary from camp to camp, but include, swimming, zip lining, horseback riding, rock wall climbing and more.

“Our mission and motto is that Pine Cove exists to be used by God to transform the lives of people for purposes and his glory,” Wallace said.

McKenzie said Pine Cove had become so much bigger than he ever could have imagined, in a post to the website.

For more information about Pine Cove Christian Camps, visit pinecove.com

Twitter: @TMT_Cory