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Kampersville: One Woman’s Dream

photo provided

photo provided

Tuesday July 24, 2007

By Larry Johnson

   Kampersville resort on Lake Dunmore is a great deal more than just another RV park. It is a “theme” park, according to owner/manager Jean Wisnowski, and the theme is always the same: family fun.

     Kampersville as an idea, as well as a reality, was born in 1969 when Jean's father, Alson “Ted” Drew bought the land from Peter Langrock and Lee Tucker, and Jean and her husband Ed (Chink) bought the land from Jean's father. They wanted to turn the property into a mobile home park but the town of Salisbury rejected this idea, however. They didn't want a permanent mobile home facility in the town. So Chink, Jean and her father approached them with the RV concept and Kampersville was born.

     To better understand Jean's incredible drive, a brief history of her father's entrepreneurial history is in order. Ted Drew was a creator of businesses. While some people fill canvasses with paint, sculpt wood or take photographs, Jean's father used his creative mind to build businesses. A partial list of his life's accomplishments would make any dozen people proud. For instance: He started a movie theater, owned a coal and oil business, restaurant, shoe store, flower boutique, various farms, auction house, grocery store, started Middlebury Beef Supply, built houses on Butternut Ridge in Middlebury. He also started Lindale Trailer Park (named after two of his daughters Lynn and Dale), owned a Pyrofax gas and appliance outlet, raised and raced horses, started the Commission Sales in East Middlebury, now operated by Jean's son Tom, owned a chicken ranch and, later on, built caskets in Florida.  He was also a town of Middlebury Selectman. This is not a complete list.

     “Dad was a strong-willed man,” Jean told me, and her sister, Joann Clark, also the Kampersville secretary, nodded in agreement. “He loved to start things, get them running and then he'd sell them,” Joann explained.

     Jean, Joann and now deceased sister Jane were brought up in Lyndonville, Vermont, where they were initially exposed to their father's incredible talent for creating something whole and alive out of just an idea. Dreams do come true and can take on a life of their own, and that is what happened with Kampersville.

     “We went camping as a family,” Jean told me, “and we were always thinking and talking about how much fun it would be to own a campground; and that's what eventually happened.”

     In the beginning, Kampersville had just 30 camp sites. Today there are a total of 220 sites---85 seasonal and the rest are rented by the day, week or month. “People come from everywhere,” Jean told me, “even as far away as Germany and Switzerland.” And why not? Kampersville is a vacation paradise for families of all sizes. Activities start early in the morning and go on until bed time. There are daily hay rides, two heated pools, store, Laundromat, deli/restaurant, shuffle board court, horseshoe rink, miniature golf course, teen and adult dances, karaoke, casino night, poker for prizes night, bingo, an arcade, boat rentals, a private beach for swimming, pool parties, pony rides, fireworks, face painting contests and a large pool that is actually several pools in one, and a soft ball diamond that is open to local teams.

     “We especially try to do a lot for the kids,” Jean explained. For instance, every weekend during the summer has a different theme. There is Easter Weekend, Christmas Weekend and Halloween Weekend. The kids have a chance to dress up for these out-of-season holidays.

     “In the early years, when we first started Kampersville, I worked 12 hour days, seven days a week. My daughter Holly was very young, so I hired a baby sitter to be with the two of us while I worked,” Jean told me. While Jean was running Kampersville, husband Ed, more familiarly known as “Chink” was running the Commission Sales operation in East Middlebury. “We didn't see a lot of each other in those days, but even then I was the secretary for the Commission Sales, while I was running Kampersville,”  Jean told me.

     The park now covers 37 acres, but in the beginning there was far less land and no beach frontage. Jean and Chink bought two lake front properties---one cottage and a building that had originally been a tea room. They tore down the tea room and moved the cottage across the road and into the park. The deli/restaurant had once been a roller skating rink in its first incarnation, but when Jean purchased the building it was a grocery store owned by Leo Sabourin. Leo also owned a Laundromat which Jean bought. So, today, the park includes a deli/restaurant, a Laundromat, a grocery store that is open year around, two cabins overlooking the lake, a recreation hall and an A-frame with five winter apartments.

     “Kampersville is truly a family affair,” Jean explained. Daughter Holly operates the seasonal restaurant and ice cream parlor during the summer months and manages the convenience store and takes reservations during the winter; son James, oversees a crew, in charge of maintenance for the facility; sister Joann is the corporation's secretary and Jean, of course, is very much in charge of everything.

     During the winter, Jean, Joann and other friends and family move to Pompano Beach, Florida. “But I can't wait for spring,” she told me, “so I can get back to Kampersville and start welcoming the people. They're not just customers, you know,” she explained. “They're also family.”

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