'We'll be back': Boulder Creek camp destroyed in wildfire calls on community in effort to rebuild
BOULDER CREEK, Calif. (KGO) -- This summer would've been their 63rd year at Camp Krem, a beloved camp in Boulder Creek for adults and children with developmental disabilities.
Instead, their only plans this year is to rebuild after the CZU Lightning Complex fire burned their 87-acre camp to the ground.
Two weeks ago, Camp Krem's owners and staff finally got a chance to visit the ruins.
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"To actually come up here and smell it and see it and see the enormity of it all was really overwhelming," said Layla Sharief, Camp Krem's administrative director.
The camp hosted at least a thousand campers and counselors from all over the world, every year.
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"Everything else here that you saw was volunteers and love and friendship and community. How do you let that go, you can't."
Despite the warnings of more fires in the years ahead and the possibility of mudslides that could wash out their roads, everyone at Camp Krem simply cannot let go because of the families that depend on them.
Their hope -- to raise $5 million and rebuild by 2022. To read more on the camp's efforts, click here.
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"This is such an integral respite for the families who have our campers in their care that we need to get back as soon as they can," Sharief said.
In the ruins, there are signs of hope -- a playground, a canoe, buds of green, all reminders of the Camp Krem they want to bring back to life.
"We'll be back," said Sherief, ringing the chimes that survived the fire. " That's what that says to us."
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