The Silver Towers Camp for People with Disabilities is the chief charitable project of the Vermont Elks Association, which has owned and operated Silver Towers since 1958. Silver Towers Camp is an extraordinary residential camp for people with disabilities ages six to seventy-five who are physically and mentally challenged. Situated on 26 acres in beautiful Ripton, Vermont, and surrounded by the scenic Green Mountain National Forest, Silver Towers gives campers the social skills and personal enrichment they seek - not to mention a world of adventures. Some of the activities but not all that we do at camp: Horse Back riding, Wagon Rides, Story Telling, Hiking, Arts & Crafts, Swimming, Nature, Music, Theater, Cooking, Indoor sports Bowling, Basketball, Ping Pong, Billiards, Outdoor sports Soccer, Bocce, Kickball, Softball, Field Games, Bean Bag Toss and many others. Silver Towers was ACRPC�s first Brownfields Project. While Silver Towers Camp is currently a summer camp, it had been established as a camp for the Civil Conservation Corps �CCC� in the 1930s. When the Elks bought the camp in 1958, it came as is, with all the old underground storage tanks to heat the buildings and fuel vehicles still in the ground. In 2007, the Elk realized they had a problem with fuel leaking or potentially leaking from the tanks. They were concerned about their ability to operate a camp for people with disabilities if they had to fear contamination problems. They reached out to the Addison County Regional Planning Commission and the EPA Brownfields Program it operated for help. ACRPC and the EPA accepted Silver Towers into their Brownfields Petroleum Program and hired ATC Environmental consulting of Richmond, Vermont to do the site assessment work. When ATC assessed the site, it found the problems was more substantial than anyone had suspected. Silver Towers had a total of 15 underground storage tanks that had formerly served either the buildings or the vehicles for the facility still in the ground and abandoned. ATC then assessed the condition of each tank and whether or not it had spilled. Since it had to search under each tank, during this part of the assessment, ATC was able to remove a number of the tanks remaining on property. After performing the assessment work, very little contamination was left in the area. ACRPC and ATC worked with the Elks to get them in the Vermont Petroleum Cleanup fund to clean the rest of the site. In total, ACRPC and EPA spent approximately 72,000 to help the Elk�s assess their property, a substantial portion of ACRPC�s 200,000 petroleum assessment grant. However, at the end of the day, ACRPC, EPA and the Elks have a good story to tell. The Elks were able to save the camp and the property. The Silver Towers Camp opened for the summer of 2008 and has been open and serving campers each summer since that time in a safe, contamination free environment.
Former Use: Developed with farmhouse and sheep farm circa 1904. CCC operated land as camp and tree plantation circa 1930. Owned by Middlebury College and the United States of America. Operated as Job Corp Camp circa 1960. Buildings currently on property developed in association with Job Corp. Leased by Vermont Elks since 1970s. Purchased by Elks in 1989.