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Hargis Day offers local residents a variety of activities to enjoy, including food trucks, a car show and a polar plunge as well as an opportunity to raise funds to save Hargis Christian Camp. (For the Reporter/Aaron Knight)

By NOAH WORTHAM | Staff Writer

CHELSEA – Chelsea residents enjoyed a variety of activities on Saturday, March 18 at the second annual Hargis Day.

The event serves as a fundraiser for Hargis Christian Camp in Chelsea, and this year’s event raised more than $4,500.

“I think we did fairly well,” said Xander Echols who helps organize the annual event. “I think (the) public received it very well too.”

Hargis Day offers local residents a variety of activities to enjoy, including food trucks, a car show and a polar plunge.

“We almost ended up running out of space (for) show cars,” Echols said. “Overall, it was a really good turnout.”

GG’s Food truck was present at the event to cater to attendees alongside The Street Café and a Red Diamond food truck.

“There’s a little bit for everybody to do,” Echols said. “We had classic cars which I feel like everybody enjoyed. We had our arts and craft tables as well for the kids and a polar plunge at the end for everybody that wanted to jump in the freezing cold lake. I would say a majority of the crowd, if not all of the crowd, enjoyed themselves being out there.”

Redemption Church Pastor Aaron Knight, who helps run the camp with his wife Kellie Knight, spoke on the importance of the event.

“It’s family fun,” Knight said. “It’s fundraising for summer camps and being able to pay off the camp in total. Another objective is that it puts eyes on the camp.”

Knight and others have been working for the past several years to raise funds to save the camp since the property was purchased in 2019. Events like Hargis Day help them get closer to paying it off.

“We’re purchasing it from Doug Eddleman,” Knight said. “So far, we’ve paid $700,000 on the balance. The balance in full was $2.5 million (and) we paid the $700,000 in 14 months. We appreciate Mr. Eddleman giving us a chance to save this Chelsea landmark.”

Echols spoke on the importance of saving the camp.

“I went to Camp Hargis when I was growing up, and we went on different retreats—hiking at night,” Echols said. “I feel like bringing it back to younger generations now. Bringing them back up (to) retreats and night adventures and things I did as a kid there and coming together at night, talking about faith and building everybody’s faith back up. I feel like that’s a tremendous thing to do for a younger youth for them to be a better generation than the rest of us.”

Knight shared what he believes the main objective of the camp is.

“Our main objective with the camp is to make Jesus known,” he said. “That’s our motto on everything we do is make Jesus known. We want to save the camp to leverage it for the kingdom.”

More information on Hargis Christian Camp can be found online at Hargischristiancamp.org.