She was ultimately successful in confronting him in a phone call, but she said he never gave her a straight answer about the allegations against him. Louis on the Air, French described her attempts to contact Price to get his side of the story. In a 2017 Facebook photo obtained by Nancy French, Price posed with Kanakuk CEO Joe White while wearing a Kanakuk visitor’s pass.ĭuring Thursday’s St. Price was not completely cut off from Kanakuk, either. One image, dated 2015, shows him seated at a table with young children during an anniversary gala. The statement also claimed, “At no time during his involvement with us did his role ever include direct ministry with students.” However, photos posted to Facebook show Price attending multiple Urban Klife events in recent years. Our first knowledge of this information came when the article by Nancy French was published in the Springfield News-Leader last month.” The statement continued: “Klife is an independent 501c3 and has no knowledge of his Kanakuk employment history or terms of his departure. Louis on the Air on Thursday, the ministry said Price was never officially employed but rather “served in a limited capacity as an unpaid advisor/volunteer to the board and staff of Urban Klife until April of 2022.” (The statement was not featured during Thursday’s St. It’s not clear how long Price volunteered with Urban Klife or what his duties were. While each ministry is ostensibly an independent nonprofit, Klife is described as a “sister ministry” to Kanakuk and is featured on the camp’s website. Louis in 1979 by families who sent their kids to Kanakuk. Louis, while also volunteering at the youth ministry Urban Klife.Īccording to its official website, Klife is part of a network of branded youth ministries founded in St. After his firing, French found that he had reestablished himself as a volleyball coach in St. Camp leaders have denied claims that they are responsible for the rampant abuse perpetrated by a counselor.Īmong the names was Chuck Price. When Nancy French embarked on her investigation in 2021, she quickly collected names of other counselors who had been accused of abuse at the camp before they were allowed to quietly disappear.Ī 2007 photo of campers at Kanakuk in Branson. There was no police report, there was nothing that was ever going to mark his character as, you know, ‘stay away. “They let him pack his bags and walk out the door. “They told everyone at camp he had a family emergency,” Jones continued. And I didn't say another word.”įive years later, in 1990, Jones says she was finally able to speak out about what had happened to her that night. Jones recalled: “I sat up and looked him in the eye and just said, ‘Chuck!’ And he looked at me. During a group movie night that summer, Jones alleges that Price began tickling her foot, and that his touch ultimately escalated to sexual assault as he continued to grope her beneath her bathing suit. It was part of the draw of camp.”īut there was one counselor, Chuck Price, who made the worst kind of impression on the young Jones. “You were excited when you showed up and the same counselors were there year after year. “It really did lend itself to strong relationships,” Jones said. When she first arrived, she remembered it being “every little kid’s dream.” In 1985, at 8 years old, she attended Kanakuk’s sports camp in Branson. That news was particularly disturbing news for Jody Jones. When French caught up with the counselor in 2021, he was volunteering in a Kanakuk-affiliated youth ministry and working as a girls high school volleyball coach in several St. Louis, she tracked down a Kanakuk counselor fired in 1990 after at least two campers reported him for sexual assault. At the time of Newman’s arrest, the camp’s leaders expressed shock at the longtime counselor’s actions, calling him “a master of deception - fooling not only Kanakuk but also his friends, neighbors, and even his own family.” But as French detailed in a lengthy May 26 investigation published in the Springfield News-Leader, that narrative is undercut by accounts of abuse survivors, former staff, campers and parents who had tried to raise alarm.įrench’s investigation didn’t just focus on Newman and his abuses in Branson.
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