Ask any local Cub Scout - or any former Troup County cub younger than 40 - what they remember about the annual June day camp known affectionately as Camp Cowpie, and the answers will be as varied as the cubs themselves.

Some recall the archery and BB guns, others the nature skills, the “water slide” created by visiting firefighters or the woodsy taste of hot dogs roasted on “buddy burners” they built themselves.

But ask any veteran of Camp Cowpie to describe the setting of their day camp memories, and the answers will be the same.

For 30 years, scout volunteer Martha Evans and her husband, Alex, have hosted Camp Cowpie in their back yard.

“Evans Farm” on John Harris Road is an ideal location for the camp, said Kim Crawford, now in her third year as program director of the camp. The wooded area situated alongside West Point Lake is as convenient as it is picturesque, she said.

“It’s a perfect setting,” Crawford said. “And things like the picnic tables stay up all year, eliminating the cost, hassle, time and labor of setting up. There’s no expense to staging the camp, so we can use our money for other things.”

Evans first volunteered to host the camp in 1979, a year after her son had participated in the event at Dunson Park, where facilities were limited.

“It was so hot, and there were no tables,” Evans recalled. “I thought, ‘We’ve got these storybook trees and fields and there’s room to play games. … We should just do it here.”

She served as both facilities director and program director for the next 15 years and continues as facilities director.

And every year, she renews the invitation for the scouts to return.

“Martha’s not retiring. She’s already told us to count on her in 2010,” Crawford said.

This year, in honor of Evans’ 30th year as “matriarch” of Camp Cowpie, the camp will hold a reunion at 11:45 a.m. Thursday. Any former cubs, scout volunteers, parents or helpers are invited to join the 2009 campers for a brief celebration.

With an average of 100 campers per year, plus adult volunteers, Boy Scouts who lend a hand and “pixies” - children of leaders who are too young to be cubs or happen to be girls - at least 4,500 people have been part of the Camp Cowpie experience during the “Evans years.”

“We encourage anyone who would like to help us say “thanks,” to Martha and just reminisce about their days at Camp Cowpie to join us,” Crawford said.

Theme for this year’s event is “Going Green” and activities will reflect the emphasis on the environmental three R’s: “reuse, reduce, recycle.”

Programs include visits from the Army Corps of Engineers and Keep Troup Beautiful. Campers will build birdhouses and flower pots for local nursing homes as a service project, and aluminum cans will be collected to recycle as a benefit for the Ronald McDonald house program.

“We always incorporate service as part of Camp Cowpie. That’s a tradition Martha established when she was program director and one we are proud to continue,” Crawford said.

Andrea Lovejoy can be reached at editor@ lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 237.