LEMON TOWNSHIP -- There are a lot of smiling faces this week at Camp St. Andrew in Wyoming County.
The camp near Tunkhannock is open for the summer after the Diocese of Scranton announced it would be closing last fall.
At the camp you'll find hundreds of kids. Some kids are there for Project Hope, others are attending the overnight camp for girls. A number of sports camps are also held at the property.
This summer the Diocese of Scranton agreed to lease the property to United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Campers are thrilled they get to spend another summer at camp.
"When we found out that camp could be closing, I always had this hope that it would come back and I knew it wouldn't stay gone forever," Elizabeth DeMarco said.
Michael McHale with United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania said it wasn't an easy task to bring the camp back.
"It was really a lot of hard work, a lot of letter writing. A lot of dedication to a cause really," McHale said.
The dedication was well worth it. Home video from 1963 shows even then kids and teens loved Camp St. Andrew.
If you walk around today the atmosphere is still the same.
"I like that I can come here and be myself and have no judgment. It's just really comforting. It's like a second home to me," Courtney Yuhas said.
Camp counselor Olivia Rader has been coming to camp for 10 years.
The soon-to-be college freshman says she can't imagine not spending part of the summer here.
"You just kind of like lead the kids and take them to all of their activities. I take them through everything I used to do when I was a camper and it's really nice to watch them do the same things I used to do," Rader said.
The Diocese of Scranton is still in talks with United Neighborhood Centers regarding the future of the property.
