Heart camp is planned for former Stanislaus County Honor Farm

Kimberlie Gamino doesn’t see old incarceration units when she looks at the former Stanislaus County Honor Farm facilities.

The Camp Taylor founder sees a place where children with heart defects can play and learn with other kids like them.

The Salida-based nonprofit cleared a hurdle this month when the county Planning Commission approved a use permit for a kids camp at the former Honor Farm on West Grayson Road, about 10 miles southwest of Modesto.

The remaining Honor Farm buildings will be demolished and replaced with 46,900 square feet of recreation and educational facilities, including a climbing wall, outdoor performance stage, a tree house, swimming pool and cabins shaped in a heart.

The center will have a kitchen and dining hall, infirmary, classroom and other features, such as a camp store, costume shop, ice cream parlor and music shop.

Campers will play on a grass meadow or row canoes on a pond. The 22-acre center next to Laird Park also will have horseback-riding trails.

“We’ll have the typical camp activities in a beautiful environment to help kids connect with other children who are fighting the same battle,” Gamino said. “To have our own camp has been a long-term goal of ours for many years.”

For 13 years, Camp Taylor has leased facilities to run camps for children with serious heart defects and their families. The free camps, like the one this week at California State University, Stanislaus, are always within 20 minutes’ drive of an emergency room and below 2,500-foot elevation.

The organization is named after Gamino’s son, who was born with half a heart and has undergone four open-heart surgeries.

A 2010 fire that destroyed barracks that housed inmates led to the county closing the Honor Farm in 2013. Camp Taylor was the only bidder when the vacant site was offered for sale last year. It is paying $723,000 for the purchase.

Gamino said the county has removed most of the hazardous materials from the site, which was owned by the county for 65 years. “It was more cost-effective for us to demolish the additional facilities than bring them up to code,” she said.

Gamino said families from California and other states bring their children to Camp Taylor programs.

The group will need $15 million to realize the dream of having its own camp. Architectural and engineering firms have provided expert help with developing the plans.

Camp Taylor is working on fundraising ideas and hopes to start using the camp in two or three years. The heart camps will be held about 130 days of the year. Gamino said other groups will be able to rent the camp and educational facilities.

Camp Taylor will have a year-round administrative office for its five to 10 employees.

“We will need to raise a lot of capital to do this,” Gamino said.

This story was originally published July 13, 2015 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Heart camp is planned for former Stanislaus County Honor Farm."