Major change set at Camden Kroc Center

Since the Salvation Army began serving on Camden's front lines in 1880, perhaps 100 commanding officers have headed the city corps.

But the arrival of Majors Terry and Susan Wood and the departure of Majors Paul and Alma Cain is big news for the city and region.

The reason is the $90 million, 120,000-square-foot Camden Kroc Center, a magnificent complex of recreational, human service, and worship facilities that has attracted 7,000 members - and a visit from President Obama - since opening in October.

With an affordable array of physical, educational, and spiritual programs for children and adults, the Kroc is seen by many (including me) as potentially game-changing for thousands of city families.

It's a dream community center, with a water park, gymnasium, black box theater, day care center, and clinic. With 150 employees (at least a third of whom live in Camden) and a $6 million annual budget, it's also an economic engine.

Building anything in the city - much less something on the scale and complexity of the Kroc - is no simple matter. But from start to finish, the Cains steered the project, made possible by a $59 million donation by Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald's magnate Ray Kroc.

At one point, 16,000 tires on the 24-acre site had to be removed; at another, a gap in funding threatened to delay the start of construction. But the Cains had earned the trust of the community, including donors, and the Salvation Army opted to proceed.

"I've never seen so many people come together for such a good purpose," longtime Camden corps board member Joseph M. Nardi III said. "The Cains were truly a godsend."

Said Mark Morton, the Camden Kroc program director and a 20-year Salvation Army veteran: "The Cains raised $10 million and built this place on [what had been] a landfill. It's pretty amazing."

The Cains, who have been reassigned to the Cleveland divisional headquarters, may be a tough act to follow. But the Woods strike me as similarly personable, faith-filled - and formidable.

"It's a daunting challenge, but after meeting with the staff, and knowing they fully grasp the vision of the Cains and the Salvation Army, I'm completely reassured," Terry, 55, said. "We're praying for a seamless transition."

The international evangelical Christian organization was founded in Britain in 1865; Camden was its second American location, after Philadelphia.

"We'll be picking up the mission the Cains have implemented," Terry said, sitting beside his wife of 23 years in the Kroc boardroom. "We want the transformation to continue."

The Woods, who have two grown children, served in the Salvation Army community center in Philadelphia in the 1990s, and most recently in suburban Columbus, Ohio.

The Camden Kroc embodies "who the Salvation Army is, and what we are here to do," said Susan, 58, who once worked as a visiting nurse in North Philadelphia.

When he learned of his parents' new assignment in Camden, "my son said, 'this is where the Salvation Army needs to be,' " she added.

The Cains, who have two children and two grandchildren, arrived in Camden in 2007, after the Kroc donation commitment was announced.

"We had this big task in front of us," said Paul, 54, who has been married to Alma for 33 years. "It was very different than the task God has for the Woods. God sent us here to get it going, and God sent them here to keep it going."

Although frequent new assignments are a Salvation Army fact of life, the Cains were somewhat taken aback by their marching orders. Their eight-year Camden stint was unusually long, and the Kroc had been open for barely seven months when they were notified May 4.

"I was in kind of a dark place for a couple days," Paul acknowledged. "I just wasn't ready to accept it. I was kind of kicking the ground and feeling sorry for myself."

But a recurring dream of being aboard a boat sparked a biblical insight: Noah had to build and fill the ark, not helm it indefinitely.

"A little peace came over me," Paul said. "I told my wife, and she cried."

"It's all good," Alma said. "The personalities are going to change, but we all serve the same Lord, and [the Woods] will carry the mission forward."

So farewell, Paul and Alma. And welcome, Terry and Susan.