In 1908, city kids didn't have many opportunities to escape Pittsburgh's stultifying summer heat and throat-choking pollution. Many of them were new arrivals to America living in crowded conditions, suffering from asthma and malnutrition.

That summer, the countryside became accessible when a group of social reformers in the Jewish community founded the Emma Farm Association, a health-and-wellness facility in Harmarville.

Children, and sometimes their parents, would travel by train into the great outdoors and spend a few weeks breathing clean air, bulking up on nutritious food, hiking, swimming, playing sports and enjoying nature.

One of the nation's earliest "fresh-air" camps, Emma Farm was the precursor of today's Emma Kaufmann Camp, or EKC, operated by the Jewish Community Center of Pittsburgh and located on Cheat Lake near Morgantown, W.Va.

Along the way the camp moved to Harmony, Butler County, and absorbed children from two other primarily Jewish camps -- the Laurel Y in Somerset County, which closed in 1961, and Camp Lynnwood, a 200-acre campus that the JCC bought in 1972 to serve as EKC's new home.

On Sunday, former campers and counselors will gather at EKC for a daylong celebration of its 100-year history. Centennial reunion coordinator Marla Tobe Werner is hoping alumni from all four camps will come to see old friends, participate in camp activities and explore the grounds.

The event is set for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Round-trip buses will leave from the JCC in Squirrel Hill. Details are available at 412-521-8011, ext. 352, or at www.ekc100.com.

Countless lifelong friendships were forged at these camps, as were many marriages. Ms. Werner met her husband at EKC, and this reporter's parents met at "adult week" at the Laurel Y, one of four nonprofit camps then located in Laurel Hill State Park. It was operated by the Young Men & Women's Hebrew Association until that group merged with the Irene Kaufmann Center to form the JCC.

The Laurel Y was "far from luxurious," said Sylvia Busis of Point Breeze, who worked there as a counselor after her freshman year at the University of Pittsburgh. Her pay: $25 for the summer.

"It was my first time away from home," said Mrs. Busis, who grew up during the Depression and never went to camp herself.

The units had no electricity or hot water, she said. "We used kerosene lanterns in the cabins, and when we really needed to clean up the children, we took them to the main building for hot water."

Camp Lynnwood, originally a rustic YMCA camp with lanterns and outhouses, was purchased by four Jewish families from Pittsburgh who installed electricity, hot showers, flush toilets and a swimming pool. Since taking over the property, EKC has continued to update the facilities.

Many families have links to the camp through multiple generations, said reunion co-chair Marcia Solomon of Squirrel Hill. Her husband, Melvin Solomon, attended Emma Farm in Harmony. Both their children went to EKC in West Virginia, and their son met his wife there. Now three grandchildren, ages 13, 10 and 9, travel there each summer from New York.

While EKC is primarily Jewish and regional in its draw, it has always drawn campers of other faiths and parts of the country. In 2002, the 9-year-old daughter of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman came all the way from California to attend. Sam Bloom, EKC director, said some 800 children ages 8 to 16 are registered for this summer.