My name is Peter Wolfe. I was born in St. George and then moved to New York City as an adult, returning to St. George after I retired. My great, great grandfather was Cesar Wolfe an ex-slave who was the catalyst for securing the land of the Shady Grove Campground. The story I was always told was one summer in the 1800s there was a rain storm that was coming and if the rice crops were not picked a year's worth of crops would be destroyed. S.M. Knight a rice farmer approached Cesar and asked him to secure help so that he would not lose his crops. Cesar blew the horn (bugle) which summons slaves back to their daily task and secured a group of people to help with the rice crop and saved a year's worth of labor for Mr. Knight.  Grateful for the help he recieved Mr. Knight gave them the land and told them it was to be used only for religious services. This was the beginning of camp meeting. I have attended every year since I was a child. When I lived in New York I would still come down to attend. It was a time of fellowship with family and friends. I have always enjoyed camp meeting. The past few years I have seen a change. The young people do not know the meaning or the history of camp meeting and do not follow tradition. I fear that the history will be lost and slowly the camp meeting will stop and a great tradition will die. We need to come up with programs that engage the young people and make them proud to attend camp meeting. They need to respect their elders and honor the traditions. They need to be proud of the history of the land. We need to come together in true fellowship the way in which it was done when my great great grandfather Cesar Wolfe secured this land.