{"id":49881,"date":"2025-07-08T23:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T23:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/49881\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T23:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T23:02:13","slug":"fort-worth-native-author-reflects-on-camp-mystic-memories-grieves-losses-in-floods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/49881\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth native, author reflects on Camp Mystic memories, grieves losses in floods"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Claudia Sullivan arrived at the front gate of Camp Mystic for the first time in 1964, she thought, \u201cI\u2019m going to be there for the rest of my life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And she did.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Claudia Sullivan, second from right, was a Camp Mystic program director in 1978. (Courtesy photo | Claudia Sullivan)<\/p>\n

The Paschal High School student traded Fort Worth\u2019s cityscape for a summer in Texas Hill Country, her spiritual home nestled in sky-scraping cypress and pecan trees along the bank of the Guadalupe River.<\/p>\n

As Sullivan grew up, her roles within Camp Mystic grew, too \u2014 from camper to counselor to program director. The Fort Worth native moved to Kerrville in 1977 to become a theater professor at Schreiner University.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Sullivan captured her girlhood experiences \u2014 and voices of other alums \u2014 in four books, weaving together the time at camp, stories of faith, sportsmanship and memories from the private all-girls Christian summer <\/a>tradition.<\/p>\n

Of those memories, she says, \u201cI had found what I had always been looking for: a sisterhood, a community and a group where I felt like I belonged,\u201d Sullivan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, the \u201cpristine paradise\u201d Sullivan remembers looks different. Muddied Camp Mystic shirts, soiled bunk beds and damaged cabins<\/a> covered in debris is what\u2019s left from the flash floods that swept through the campgrounds and the Central Texas county during the early morning on the Fourth of July.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Camp Mystic lost 27 campers and counselors following the catastrophic flooding according to a statement published on its website<\/a>. As of July 8, five campers and one counselor are still unaccounted for, Kerr County officials said<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,\u201d Camp Mystic said. \u201cWe are praying for them constantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dick Eastland, Camp Mystic co-owner and executive director, died while trying to save some of the youngest girls from the flood waters<\/a>, which rose over 26 feet within 45 minutes. Cynthie \u201cJane\u201d Ragsdale, who grew up attending Camp Mystic and later served in a leadership role of another all-girls\u2019 summer camp called Heart O\u2019 the Hills<\/a>, also died from the flood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were pillars of the community, both of them,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI can\u2019t recall either one of them not having a smile on their face. They were people that were very present.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In \u2018flood country\u2019 this experience was different<\/strong><\/p>\n

Flooding is common<\/a> in Texas Hill Country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1932, six years after Camp Mystic was built, torrential rains<\/a> fell upon the upper watersheds of the Nueces and Guadalupe rivers. Seven people drowned and the flooding brought property losses exceeding $500,000 \u2014 equivalent to $11.8 million today, according to The Texas Tribune<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The camp built relationships with nearby ranchers who would call in to warn of rising water levels, Sullivan said. She remembers moving about 200 girls to higher grounds during a 1978 tropical storm<\/a> that caused flooding in the Guadalupe and Medina rivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is flood country, and I think we always knew that we were safe,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cWe always knew where to go.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

With all the floods Camp Mystic has seen over the years, the waters on July 4 \u2014 reaching over 26 feet high \u2013 \u201ccame to places that it\u2019s never come before,\u201d Sullivan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018This faith, this love, this resilience, this sisterhood\u2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Fort Worth native Claudia Sullivan started attending Camp Mystic in 1964. (Courtesy photo | Claudia Sullivan)<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the flood, a video posted to social media has gone viral<\/a> of Camp Mystic evacuees singing the hymn \u201cPass It On\u201d <\/a>while driving through the destroyed campgrounds and rushing waters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It brought Sullivan to tears, she said, and speaks to the culture that she and hundreds of others girls cultivate at camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou learn who you are and who you can be,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cAnd a part of that growth is that I am a child of God, and God is all around me, and I pray with my sisters, and I talk about faith.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lessons she and other women learned from their time at Camp Mystic have helped guide them through pain and success, she said. Sullivan was inspired to pen these sentiments in her 2024 book \u201cSince We Were There: The Influence of Summer Camp on Adult Lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look back over our lives and when we try to navigate the things that life brings up, it was Camp Mystic that was the through line in my life,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cAnd I think that would probably be true for lots of women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the faith she cultivated through Camp Mystic is what\u2019s carrying her through the grief and loss she and others are experiencing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing they did at Mass was, at the end, everybody said, \u2018We are one, we are one, we are one together.\u2019 If that doesn\u2019t uplift you and give you courage, I don\u2019t know what does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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