COVINGTON, Ga. — Keri Marrett Hampton has come only a few miles from her Conyers home to the Salem Campmeeting for all of her 44 years.

She first came as an infant to the annual event featuring a week of fun activities and serious preaching, and continued the tradition with her own children — just as others have done for decades, she said.

Many attendees saw their friends' children grow up to have their own children who also attended.

"It's a long week of people saying, 'I knew you when,' Hampton said, laughing.

However, she has kept an annual tradition of attendance — and now works there fulltime -- because of what Salem Campmeeting means to her.

"We say all the time this is the holiest ground we know," she said.

Keyboardist Becky Ramsey and twin sister Alice Walker will provide music as they have during the event for the last half a century. Both are board members of the organization that puts together the annual gathering.

Ramsey — who met her late husband, former Covington mayor Sam Ramsey, at the Campmeeting in the 1960s — said it "has faithfully bonded our community together for 194 years."

"This is the best-known event in our local history," Ramsey said.  

This year's 194th Salem Campmeeting is set for Friday, July 15, to July 22, at 3940 Salem Road, which is adjacent to historic Salem United Methodist Church. Worship services in the tabernacle are set for 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m..

To celebrate the opening weekend of Salem Campmeeting, the public is invited to take a Tour of Tents from 1:30 to 3:30 Saturday, July 16. Attendees are welcome to do a self-guided tour, or meet on the hotel porch at 1:30 or 2:30 for a guided tour, organizers said.

The "tents" are actually cabins where Campmeeting worshipers live during the weeklong celebration of their Christian faith.

Its historic hotel has a limited number of rooms available each year and RV hookups are available for camping, organizers said.

Hampton took the job of being the 77-acre campground's caretaker after longtime Campmeeting organizer and leader Sam Ramsey died in August 2020. A couple subsequently hired to do the job did not work out and Hampton took the job.

"This place being near and dear to me, I signed up," she said.

Hampton oversaw the renovation of the historic, 21-room hotel and also oversees the historic facility, which also can be rented for special events on the 51 weeks other than the one the Salem Campmeeting is held.

Recent renovations included refinishing the hotel's original wooden floors, redoing the bathroom floors, and even putting new cushions on couches, she said.

"It doesn't feel new, but it's just clean," she said.

The main speakers and worship leaders for the weeklong Salem Campmeeting beginning Friday are set to include:

• Bishop Larry Goodpaster, Bishop in Residence at Candler School of Theology at Emory University's Atlanta campus.

Goodpaster also serves as director of Candler Early Career Pastoral Leadership Program and served as president of the Council of Bishops from 2010 to 2012.

• The Rev. Will Dyer, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Augusta and its 3,000-member congregation.

Dyer has been a featured speaker at multiple preaching conferences in the Southeast.

• Thomas Roberts of Coral Springs, Florida, is the music director and platform leader. He has served in that role since 1989. He works as an Environmental Consultant but also served as full-time director of music in United Methodist and Presbyterian churches from 1966 to 1992.

• Alice Walker and Becky Ramsey, both of Covington but originally from Atlanta. Walker is organist and director of the Ambassador Choir and Handbell Choir at First Presbyterian Church in Covington. Ramsey is director of music for seniors at Covington First United Methodist Church, among other duties.

They are co-founders and co-directors of the Singing Ambassadors Choir of Covington.

Members of the Singing Ambassadors and vocal groups from churches in Covington, Conyers and Griffin also are scheduled to perform.

For more information about Salem Campmeeting and attending its scheduled activities, visit salemcampmeeting.org.