Chad Schwarzauer, a native of Jackson and longtime fan of Camp Bratton-Green, started in the role of Facilities Manager and Co-director of Camp in December 2025. With an extensive background in both residential and commercial construction and a degree in Building Construction Science from Mississippi State, he’s brought a great deal of experience to the position. Schwarzauer is particularly fond of restoration of old buildings and has done remodels on historic homes in Belhaven. He recently sat down with TME editor Wil Oakes to talk about his history with and love for camp and his hopes for the future.

So, Chad, tell me about how you first came into the orbit of Bratton-Green and Gray Center?

I went to St Andrew’s school growing up, and we would always come out here for a day late in spring semester. So, I was out here for that, those day trips, which were always great, and then when I went into sixth grade, I believe is when EYC started, and I went to St. James’ and Buddy Stallings was in charge of our youth group program, and he brought in Richard Lawrence, I know you know who he is…

He’s a legend.

Right? And then Richard brought in Jason Woodcock, who was dating Beth at the time, and Jamie Dickson and Nat Duncan. And I know I’m leaving out some really important people—Ben David—just like, if you can think of an all-star team, and they were our youth leaders. Obviously I had no idea how good I had it at the time, right? So I started doing every single DOY that I could possibly do. I was at every EYC meeting. I only went to a summer session one year, and it was when Jason was a permie and Chuck Culpepper was my cabin dad. I’ve just been the luckiest person to be surrounded by all the best of the best. I came out— I think it was the second Winter Solstice that was my first Winter Solstice, and I did all four years. And my last one was the first year over on the camp side, and I remember it snowed right after the dance. I was in my tux and everything, and went and did a belly flop slide down the hill by the pool. It was just always my favorite place. I wasn’t always the most popular kid around and I was small and skinny and Bratton-Green was always the safe place.

So you got a lot out of it spiritually, but also in terms of confidence and life wisdom?

I think it was actually at Happening where we had to write down five things we wanted to accomplish and one of them for me was I wanted to learn how to fix things on my house. I wanted to learn carpentry. You know, Jesus is a carpenter, so there’s got to be something to it. After high school, I made it a point to get into construction, start learning construction. And so now that’s that’s been a big part of my life and my career.

How did you first get hooked up with Chip and Cathy and the idea of this job. How did that all come about?

Well, I hadn’t been out to Bratton-Green in a number of years, and I was working a commercial millwork job. I was traveling all over the southeast, and I don’t remember who reached out to me or how I found out, but Nat was redoing the outside of the cabins and try and get them insulated. And I don’t know if I ran into Jason somewhere or what, but somebody said something about going out there and doing some work on the weekend. So I started joining Nat and Corey and Jason and Buddy and a number of other people. Mike Stanton was out there good bit. People would come and go. For pretty much every weekend that spring, up until camp started that summer, I was out here working, and then I found out about the Alumni Association while I was doing all this volunteer stuff, and so I joined that, and would come out to the weekends as needed. And then at the one last October, Cathy said something about this position becoming available. And I kind of shrugged it off, because I had a bunch of projects of my own that I had going that were pretty demanding.

Oh, you didn’t think you’d be interested at first?

I was like, nah, you know, probably not. But then for the next week or two, it just kind of stayed rattling around in the back of my head. I finally talked to Lynn, who I’m dating and who lives in New Orleans with her two kids, about it, and I was like, “look, I know this is kind of the opposite direction of New Orleans. This is 30, 35, 45 minutes, the other way, but I really haven’t been able to shake this thought and just, you know, the synergy of it all, and what it would mean and what I can give back.” And she was fully supportive of it. You know, she grew up in Baton Rouge. She’s Episcopalian from down there, and went to the Episcopal school. And, you know, summer camps were a big deal for her growing up. So we talked, and the stars seemed to align. So I got back in touch with Chip and Cathy, and I was like, I think I want to try to talk about this and see what we can make happen. And I’m so grateful to both of them. I wouldn’t be here if Chip hadn’t taken care of things the way he has the last few years.

That’s amazing. What are some of the projects that you’ve already completed that you’re most excited about?

Getting the dish pit rebuilt has been a big one—right out of the gate, pretty big undertaking, and Jason and Buddy [Turpin] really helped out tremendously with that. I definitely would not have been able to do that project without their assistance, their volunteer time. The sale of the north side, getting through all those hurdles. The transition of moving all the physical stuff out of that space, and also prepping it and having it ready for the deconsecration, Working with Quiet Waters, hand in hand with them as they take over the north side, that was a huge accomplishment.

What else… Stopping the pool from leaking! Oh, my goodness, that’s one that I’m very proud of. We’re working with this pool savant named Big Al. He walked up to that pool, he walked around it, you know, licked his finger, stuck it up in the air for about three seconds, and said, “okay, this, this, this.” And, I mean, within almost no time he had it. The leak stopped. And it doesn’t just not leak. All the lights are properly grounded. All the lights are totally functional. He put in depth markers, all kinds of things, and then the cool deck is supposed to start hopefully in the next couple of days. That’s going to transform not just the esthetics of the pool, this new coating should cut down on a lot of that heat transfer and make it so people don’t feel the need to run to hop into the pool, which will help with slip hazards and falling and a number of things.

And new storm shelters, new access control gate, lots of other things. Those are the big projects I’m most excited about, the ones that are completed and the ones that are near completion.

It’s impressive what you’ve accomplished already, and I love your enthusiasm for the place. It really comes through when you talk about this stuff.

This is a special place out here. If folks haven’t been lucky enough to experience it, I hope they’ll take any opportunity to find that exposure, because I could not imagine my life without it. It lives strong in people’s hearts for a reason. I’m excited to be here and hope to, for the next generation, at least give them a piece, if not more, of what I was able and fortunate enough to experience—what those before me created.

That’s awesome, man. We’re really grateful to have you. See you at the Culpepper Cookout?

Every day, I’ll be here.