ELEVATORS: If you were traveling between floors in Bradford’s Odd Fellows building in Bradford starting in the 1940s, Jack Camas might have been the one manning the lift.

Rocco Camas of Bradford Township called to tell us that his brother Jack worked there as an elevator operator, probably longer than any of the other operators.

Jack got the job through a mutual buddy of his and Rocco’s: Richard Rich.

A one-armed man, Richard was the maintenance engineer of the building who was responsible for tasks such as stripping and waxing the floors, washing the walls and stoking the boilers in the wintertime with a wheelbarrow and shovel, Rocco tells us.

The foreman at the time was George Valsing.

“The people were great there,” Rocco noted.

“(Jack) worked six days a week,” Rocco said. “On Saturdays, my brother had to restring the Venetian blinds.”

He noted there had been a newsstand in the lobby on the right hand side, too.

Rocco isn’t sure of the year, but he believes the building had an elevator operator until the late 1960s.

Virginia Johnson remembers when the building had elevator operators, though she didn’t know the names of any of the operators.

Her grandmother was a member of the Rebekah Lodge, the women’s branch of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Her grandmother would go to Rebekah meetings in the building when it had elevator operators.

Virginia said the Rebekahs had to be out of the building by 11 o’clock because that’s what time the operator went off duty, and no one else was allowed to run the elevators.

SUPPORT: The Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic has supported Camp JJ for years.

In fact, the Big 30 officials have offered some funding to the camp for many more years than an article in Friday’s paper indicated: it’s been 30 years, as opposed to the two or three that the article states, according to Camp JJ vice president Carol Minard.

Carol wanted to make sure residents knew the “wonderful, wonderful support” Big 30 has offered over the years, noting that Big 30 representatives even come down to look at the camp and talk to the attendees.

The camp, which was held last week at Highlander Christian Camp outside of Kane, has served children with special needs since 1985.