GILLETTE — After a few days of stormy weather, long lines and overflowing portable toilets, the International Pathfinder Camporee in Gillette put a lid on it Friday, under a dishwater sky that seemed fitting given the messy conditions.
At such a jam-packed five-day affair that brought an estimated 60,000 people to this northeast Wyoming city, perhaps nothing is more important than serviceable porta-potties.
When nature called, however, many Camporee visitors at the Cam-plex complex experienced the opposite of a royal flush.
The gathering happens every five years and celebrates the Pathfinder ministry’s spiritual impact. This year’s drew at least 60,000 visitors to Campbell County, courtesy of Seventh-day Adventist Church organizers.
The convention’s crowd made its presence felt on Monday, and by Wednesday something just didn’t smell right.
In fact, on-site activities were cut short Friday over concerns about the weather, said Kimberly Maran, director for the Adventist Church’s North American Division Office of Communication. The statement from event organizers read, in part, they “reluctantly decided to finish the evening main stage nighttime program one day early, on Friday, Aug. 9.”
Flooded Out
A storm Tuesday that caused considerable flooding in spots and evacuations didn’t help the overflowing porta-potties. By many accounts, the hundreds of portable toilets that were brought in by the Camporee were still far too few.
Maran said it was “unsafe” for local Big D Sanitation workers, which provided the toilets, to remain on site during the bad weather.
“We got people out of harm’s way, but flooding was an issue,” said Maran, adding that Gillette city employees and Cam-plex staff members were a tremendous help.
“I do think improvements can be made,“ she said. “Trash piling up by the porta-potties probably affected them.”
Because of clean-up efforts in the storm’s aftermath, Camporee did not conduct its usual on-site activities Wednesday morning.
Full Of It
A maintenance worker for Vermeer, a company which had trucks parked near porta-potties Thursday, shrugged and said of his crew: “We’re just cleaning the toilets.”
Meanwhile, participant Jose Augusto Santos of Boston said he and his group were disgusted with the inadequate bathroom accommodations and asserted that anybody in denial of the unsanitary problem that developed is, well, full of it.
“The reality is, no one has been capable of handling this event. Nobody wants to take responsibility,” Santos told Cowboy State Daily, noting the portable toilets were an unacceptable and disgusting “fiasco.”
He said if a similar problem happened in Massachusetts, city officials there would either find a resolution immediately or shut down the event.
In Gillette, members of Santos’ group based in the camp’s Atlantic Union section were unable to use facilities Tuesday and Wednesday, causing kids to “hold it in” and get sick.
He notified Camporee officials, only to be directed elsewhere. Santos said one pastor accused him of breaking Camporee’s chain of command.
“I don't care what is said about me. My only concern is about the children,” Santos replied.
Not The Weather
As for the event being short-circuited Friday, Santos doesn’t blame Mother Nature or buy the weather forecast as the reason the event was cut short.
“I am here crazy-stressed, looking for hotels in Casper to accommodate 200 teenagers who came from Boston,” he said. “We were not expecting to be expelled from camping one day before.”
Big D Sanitation owner Jeanie Clancy told Cowboy State Daily she was informed by Camporee attendees there were thousands more visitors than anticipated, “close to 75,000 to 80,000” all told.
“They were overwhelmed and made us overwhelmed,” is how Clancy summed up why there weren’t enough porta-potties.
Her business, whose motto is “Wyoming’s most reliable portable toilet service,” was established in 1986 and has extensive experience.
With the number of people at the Camporee, “We probably needed another 1,000 toilets,” she said.
Not Unexpected
In June 2023, Cowboy State Daily reported that Campbell County had an account to the tune of $340,000 available to buy extra porta-potties if necessary. At the time, Cam-plex Executive Director Aaron Lyles calculated the money was enough for 325-plus toilets.
On Friday, Clancy said Big D’s contract for Camporee stipulated her crews would have “two weeks” to set up the portable toilets. Because of the recent Campbell County Fair, however, she “had only six days to prepare.”
After Tuesday’s storm, Clancy estimated her business was logging 20-hour days at Camporee. From her perspective, the convention’s overall organization was poor.
“It was under-staffed and very frustrating,” she said. “There’s no way anybody could keep up with this.”
