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With the assistance of the Harmony Property Group and private donors, Camp Montvale is making progress toward its public reopening next summer.

The Friends of Camp Montvale is teaming up with Ruby Tuesday Inc. this week to provide a weeklong day camp for 60 children related to the restaurant company’s employees.

Friends President Bryan Roberson said this will be the only event held at the camp this year, with the exception of a few weekend offerings. He said the camp infrastructure is fine but several facilities, such as the swimming pool, still aren’t completely repaired. Cash and item donations are still needed, Roberson said.

As for the kids at the camp on Monday, they seemed to be too preoccupied to think about being the first campers at Montvale since the YMCA closed it in 2006. After their snack break, they split into groups for horseback riding, arts and crafts, a nature walk, a memory game or a game of volleyball.

One particular group was joyous as they walked about a tenth of a mile to take turns riding a pair of horses. This group of 10 carefree children combated the heat with their water bottles — and the occasional banana wielded as an imaginary pistol — singing ’90s tunes as they made their way down the gravel roadway.

An hour later, the heat had apparently gotten to three of the girls — Crislyn Tipton, a 9-year-old at Foothills Elementary; Kiara Phipps, a 9-year-old at Fairview Elementary and Olivia Raymond, a 9-year-old at Knoxville’s A.L. Lotts — who said they really wanted to go swimming.

Most of the kids said they were excited to be there, but few of them were as excited as Phipps. She said she’d asked her parents “a million times” when she was coming to the camp. Phipps also said she’d probably be coming back to the day camp next year.

Sam Tate, a real estate broker and Friends board member, was at Camp Montvale in 1968 and 1969, and he said the facilities have been greatly improved. When he was a kid, the pool was fed by the creek and he said the water was really cold. Tate also said the cabins were “very small and very compact.”

He said he’s very eager to see the camp reopen and be valuable to the community again. Tate said Harmony has been a “godsend” and Tate said he never would’ve guessed the camp would reopen because a couple of years ago it looked “abysmal”. He said the camp is a “great opportunity for the community” and it will benefit not only children but the whole region.

These camping experiences not only teach children how to get along with others and build relationships but also how to solve problems and resolve conflict, he said. Camp Montvale also offers them a “great opportunity for (offering) lessons to teach (the kids how to use) spiritual tools.”

Tate said he’s interested in the Christian development of children and he wants to make it a prominent component of the camp.