Going to camp helped get Mike Walter where he is today

Kids enjoy a hike at Camp Oaks with YMCA of the Greater Long Beach Area in San Bernardino National Forrest area of Big Bear, Tuesday, July 17, 2018. (Eric Reed/For the Press-Telegram)

By Rich Archbold | rarchbold@scng.com | Press-Telegram

PUBLISHED: June 21, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. | UPDATED: June 21, 2021 at 6:00 a.m.

Mike Walter, one of Long Beach’s most successful businessmen, educators and community leaders, owes much of his success to going to camp as a boy growing up in Illinois.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today had I not gone to camp,” Walter told me last week. He had called to lend his support to the Press-Telegram’s Send-a-Kid-to-Camp campaign to send financially needy kids to summer camps in the mountains.

The 22nd annual fund drive is currently underway, asking readers to help send kids to camps operated by the YMCA of Greater Long Beach, Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach, Camp Fire Angeles, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

The campaign was started by the late Press-Telegram columnist Tom Hennessy and Jean Bixby Smith, chair emeritus of the Long Beach Community Foundation.

So far, readers have donated $48,103.

And last week, an anonymous donor said they would contribute an additional $25,000 if readers match that amount with their collective donations from June 13 to July 4, when the campaign ends.

Walter, meanwhile, called to say he would donate to help reach $25,000 goal and urged P-T readers to do likewise.

“There is such a great value in going to camp in the outdoors,” said Walter, who is dean emeritus at the Cal State Long Beach College of Business and a successful businessman with various companies, including Levi Strauss & Co. and the DuPont Company. He also is a community leader helping multiple nonprofit organizations.

Walter grew up in Albany, a small town in western Illinois across the Mississippi River from Clinton, Iowa, where he was born.

“I was raised by my grandparents and went to camps paid for by the American Legion because we didn’t have a lot of money,” he said. “I learned so much in those camps. I learned how to swim and do so many other things that I never would have learned if I hadn’t gone to those camps. I really got motivated to do things and got confidence.”

As an aside, Walter said, during snowy winters, he asked his grandmother to knit more mittens for him because he would give his away to needier kids.

“We helped each other get along,” he said, “just like we should do now.”

Walter joined the U.S. Army out of high school and made it the United States Military Academy at West Point. He became an Army engineer.

“I was 17 when I entered the Army on Aug. 17, and I had $17 in my pocket,” he said with a laugh. “There would have been no West Point without those camps and what I learned.”

Now, it’s your turn to help. Your donations will help meet the matching offer of $25,000. Your dollars will send children to a once-in-a-lifetime experience at camp for one week. We invite you to make a contribution and make a child’s dreams come true. Keep in mind that it takes $450 on average to send one youngster to one week at camp.

Mike Walter, the Press-Telegram, the Community Foundation and the youth organizations thank you in advance for making a difference in the lives of many kids.

If You Want To Donate

Online donations are preferred and can be submitted to longbeachcf.org/donate/skc.

You can also mail a check, payable to: Long Beach Community Foundation (with Send-a-Kid-to-Camp in the memo), 400 Oceangate, Suite 800, Long Beach CA 90802.