No young campers were at Heart o’ the Hills on July 4. But the staff was, including a young woman from North Texas whose family ties to the camp run deep.
SACHSE, Texas — Editor’s Note: Teresa Woodard has known Robin Balderson since childhood. While personal familiarity exists, all standard journalistic practices were followed to ensure fairness, accuracy, and objectivity in reporting. This relationship did not influence the editorial direction or tone of this story.
Bailey Balderson, 22, cannot remember a time when summer camp in the Texas Hill Country wasn’t a dominant part of her life. Her younger sister Riley certainly can’t either.
The house they’ve grown up in is in Sachse, a Dallas suburb, but home is on the Guadalupe River.
“Camp was always where I could be confident,” Bailey said.
It’s where their parents watched their precious little girls grow into strong, independent women, like Heart o’ the Hills Camp Director Jane Ragsdale. Their father, Jeff Balderson, went to work for a boys’ camp run by the Ragsdale family on almost a whim.
He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was earning his undergraduate degree in journalism in West Virginia when an advertisement for Camp Stewart, a boys’ camp in Texas, caught his eye.
He became a counselor in 1989 and stayed on multiple summers working for the Ragsdale family. He became Jane Ragsdale’s first year-found employee.
“It was just her and I that year,” Jeff remembered. “Every nuance of what makes Heart, Heart was Jane.”
The experience working with kids moved him so much that he found his way to the University of Texas at Austin to earn a teaching certificate.
He fell in love with a fellow Longhorn who was also studying education. They became teachers in North Texas, but summers were spent in the Hill Country. When Bailey and Riley were born, they were destined to be campers, too.
“My children learned just invaluable things at camp,” said Bailey and Riley’s mom, Robin Balderson. “I believe it is absolutely who they are.”
After years as a counselor, Bailey was a member of Heart o’ the Hills’ head staff this summer.
The camp was between sessions on July 4, so no kids were there. But the staff was.
Bailey woke up to a commotion in the hallway outside. The river she’d grown up on had turned into an ocean.
“There are cars floating by and bobbing up and down,” she described. “You see the lights under the water. Roofs of houses go by, and you hear thunder, but it’s actually Cypress trees cracking.”
Bailey said Jane Ragsdale’s son and daughter-in-law held on to their own young children and led Bailey and others out of their flooded lodge. Through blinding rain and in total darkness, they found a path and made their way to the top of a hill. They were safe, but they didn’t know who else was.
“I just remember at one point someone saying, ‘Has anyone like seen Jane?’ There wasn’t an answer given, but we were all climbing and walking at that point,” Bailey remembered.
Across the river at Camp Stewart, Robin, Jeff and Riley got a few text messages from Bailey, so they knew she was alive, but then the messages stopped, and the worry set in.
“It wasn’t until about 7:30 that night that we knew for sure she was alive and totally safe,” Robin said.
The next day, the roads cleared enough for them to reunite at Heart o’ the Hills. Much of the camp they loved was lost.
Jane was, too. She’d taught her campers to be strong, independent women. Robin believes that’s part of what got Bailey through.
Robin is also reflecting on the courage Jane’s son showed as he guided the staff to safety.
“All I could think of when Bailey was saying to me that Dean saved us is the immense pride that his father and his mom, Jane, felt. That’s probably what they raised him for his whole life,” she said.
“How proud she must be of him and his young family now,” Robin said.
The Baldersons say they will remain a dedicated camp family and wholeheartedly believe Hunt will always be a little slice of paradise in Texas. They treasure what camp has meant and cherish Jane’s influence on their lives.
Bailey is taking comfort in something a member of the Ragsdale family told her.
“Jane went with her camp. It would have broken her heart and spirit to have seen what it looks like now,” she said.
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