Substance misuse touches every American family across every demographic, inflicting emotional distress and causing education and job disruptions, economic hardship and legal problems. The need to find solutions and provide support and education is more critical at this moment due to the isolation, loss of structure and uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
The William Magee Center for Wellness Education at the University of Mississippi seeks to change, improve and even save lives through alcohol and other drugs (AOD) education and support. A new fundraising campaign aims to strengthen the Magee Center while honoring the life and work of Ole Miss alumnus Dick O’Ferrall, who has dedicated his life to the calling of helping young people.
To honor O’Ferrall’s commitment to wellness and connection to the natural world, donors will help name the The Dick and Alice O’Ferrall / Alpine Camp Outdoor Recreation Suite at the new South Campus Recreation Center on the Ole Miss campus. Housed alongside the Magee Center in the complex, the Dick O’Ferrall Outdoor Recreation Suite will pay public respect to O’Ferrall and his 60 years of leadership at Alpine Camp for Boys in Mentone, Alabama, so that his uplifting legacy of mentoring young people about faith and the outdoors can live on.
This naming effort will:
The wellness center is named after the late William Magee, an Ole Miss graduate and former athlete who camped at Alpine for a month each summer beginning after second grade into high school. William – and generations of other Alpine campers – loved “Mr. O.” William is the son of alums Kent and David Magee of Oxford, Mississippi.
When O’Ferrall graduated from Ole Miss in 1957, he answered the call to share his faith with boys and young men at Alpine, mentoring and leading them in the outdoors to learn foundational inner strength. Over six decades, few individuals have had such a profound impact on so many lives. Many of O’Ferrall’s campers attended and graduated from Ole Miss specifically because of Alpine Camp relationships.
The son of a well-known Jackson physician, O’Ferrall was actively involved in Phi Delta Theta fraternity while a student in the 1950s. He and a partner purchased an existing camp soon after he graduated, converting it into Alpine, a Christian camp for boys. O’Ferrall and his wife, Alice, became the sole camp owners and remain actively involved until their retirement. Their daughter, Carter Breazeale and son-in-law Glenn Breazeale, both Ole Miss graduates, serve as directors of the camp today.
We must raise $100,000 to help fund the Magee Center’s growth initiatives, provide climbing wall and ropes course opportunities for underserved high school students in the region, and honor the legacy of our beloved alumnus Dick O’Ferrall. We need your help. Together, gifts of all sizes make an immediate and lasting impact in the fight against substance misuse.
Please give to help us change, improve and even save lives, as Dick O’Ferrall has done for so many young people over the years.
Give $61 to honor every year that Dick O’Ferrall, affectionately known as “Mr. O,” has mentored through faith and the outdoors at Alpine Camp for Boys.
Food is a big deal at Alpine, a cornerstone of camp, when everyone joins for three meals a day, seated together in the dining hall. Each meal is blessed with songs sung by all in camp tradition. With three blessings a day over three camp terms, that totals 120 meals blessed in the dining hall every summer.
Alpine Camp for Boys enjoys 350 acres of Alabama’s great outdoors, featuring deep forests, massive rocks and rushing waterfalls.
Summer days at Alpine start at 7 a.m. with reveille, followed by morning watch and breakfast in the dining hall to prepare for a full day of activities and breaking bread together.
More than 1,000 boys and young men, including campers, counselors and staff spend the summer at Alpine, building foundations that will last a lifetime.
Cool summer days and nights at Alpine Camp for Boys is a gift celebrated by all, thanks to Mentone, Alabama’s elevation at 1,736 feet above sea level.
Mr. O’s presence and leadership at Alpine Camp for Boys and beyond has been priceless for more than 60 years. Help us honor such service and dedication to faith, the outdoors and mentoring many thousands of young people.