On Pressley Ridge closing”Communities are important for children and youth, but the use and benefits of community must be experienced to be learned.” These are the words of Dr. Nicholas Hobbs. They are lifted from his book “The Troubled and Troubling Child.” Happenstance brought Dr. Hobbs and a local industrial psychologist, John Gorsuch, together when the two men served in World War II.
Gorsuch, a personnel executive for US Steel, later served on the Pressley Ridge Board of Trustees. He invited his friend Hobbs to offer counsel to the children’s agency, then redefining its mission and shaping its future direction. The principles of Dr. Hobbs’ Re-Ed movement were embraced by Pressley Ridge. The agency built the Marshall Avenue Campus in 1969. Another such encounter, involving once again Gorsuch and Hobbs, led to the decision in 1972 to visit a camp outside of Dallas, Texas. The camp was run by a man named Campbell Loughmiller. It was an alternative to the traditional residential treatment facilities of that time.
The visitors from Pittsburgh learned that the Texas program – outdoors, activity oriented, group-focused and based on the premise that all children want to be good but must first be taught how – was making a positive difference in the lives of children.
The representatives from Pressley Ridge returned from this visit committed to adopting this model, the “therapeutic wilderness camp.”
The land was purchased in 1973. It was decided to locate the program on the border of the newly formed Ohiopyle State Park (not officially dedicated until 1971) as land was being purchased to expand the park, and residents on “the mountain” were more inclined to sell property to Pressley Ridge rather than the state. It was here that the Pressley Ridge Ohiopyle program began a 33-year history with the people of Fayette County.
As the decision to close the program has been made public, I feel it is fitting to somehow express that the coincidence of the program’s location turned out to be as important as that accidental meeting between Gorsuch and Hobbs 30 years earlier.
No community could have been more accepting of the program’s mission, more supportive of our work and more understanding of our boys (we know there were countless times that understanding was tested). The relationship between Pressley Ridge Ohiopyle and our neighbors has been a true partnership.
The opportunity to interface and work together with people from the Uniontown Area School District, State Park, The New Meadow Run and Spring Valley Communities, Ohiopyle and Farmington Volunteer Fire departments, Touchstone Center for Crafts, the Fayette Human Service Council, Fayette County Community Action Food Bank, Adagio Health, Wharton Township supervisors, Fort Necessity National Battlefield, the “troopers” of the Uniontown State Police Barracks, The Nature Conservancy, The Woodland Zoo, Challenger Little League, Fort Necessity Garage and countless other community entities has enhanced our effort and helped us teach our boys that “communities are important.”
Jim Natural, MA
Coordinator Education Services
Presley Ridge, Ohiopyle