Marin centenarian promotes road repairs at Fairfax camp

As the matriarch of a multigeneration family of scouts, Jean Marchant had a simple gift wishlist for her 100th birthday this week: Donate toward road repairs at Camp Tamarancho, the organization’s hub in Fairfax.

“For my 100th birthday, I don’t need any more ‘stuff,'” Marchant, a San Rafael resident, wrote in a letter to her friends, family and many acquaintances. “So if you wish to honor my birthday, please donate $100, or any amount, to the ‘Jean Marchant 100th Birthday Road Repair Fund’ of the Marin Council of Boy Scouts to help rebuild the road to Camp Tamarancho.”

In March 2023, a storm caused a major slide and complete blockage at Iron Springs Fire Road. The road is the only public vehicle access to the camp, which is used by more than 1,500 Marin families and their children every year.

The 400-acre site, in use since 1945 by the Marin Council scouts organization, normally runs summer day camps during the week for younger scouts and weekend camping for families and older scouts.

Since the slide, only the older scouts, who are able to hike the 3 miles into the camp, have been able to access the property on the weekends, said Michael Dybeck, executive director of the council. The day camps have been relocated the last two summers to the San Geronimo area and to McNears Beach Park in San Rafael.

Marchant, whose birthday is July 10, and other donors have raised $7,000 so far out of the $350,000 cost for the first stage of the repairs. The first stage is to build a retaining wall on Iron Springs Road and then retool the road itself, he said.

“This is one of those large projects where every $1 makes a difference,” Dybeck said.

“It’s such a big number that we need a preponderance of people helping out,” he added. “Jean Marchant’s outreach will be of big benefit for us.”

Iron Springs Road is private, and thus no public county funds are available, Dybeck said. The camp is expecting county permits for the construction to be issued later this summer, and has secured a contractor for the work, he said.

The first stage of work will allow car access to the camp for the first time since the slide, he said. Another $350,000 worth of work will be needed in the future to secure two smaller slides along the road so that they don’t expand later on, he said.

“We are depending on a lot of generosity from area families who value scouting and the contributions we make to develop leadership and character in young people,” Dybeck said.

Marchant said this is the second year that she has “looked for something local where there is a real need” to refer her potential birthday gift givers for donations.

Last year, the recipient was the new career technical education building at Terra Linda High School. Marchant told San Rafael resident Charlie Goodman, a major organizer of the project, to urge potential donors to match her $99 donation.

This year, she cast an even wider net.

“They are short at least $150,000,” Marchant said in her fundraising letter, referring to the Marin Council’s fund for the Iron Springs Fire Road repairs. “I have made a substantial donation to help them get over the hump to get the road fixed soon, and I hope you too can help.”

Since she and her late husband Bud Marchant have two children, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, there are a lot of family donors and friends available.

Of the large extended Marchant family, many gravitated to scouting.

“My son and all four grandsons are Eagle Scouts,” Marchant wrote in her letter. “And one great-grandson and two great granddaughters are Cub Scouts.”

“Scouts — soon to be renamed ‘Scouting America’ — now includes girls,” Marchant added in the letter.

Marchant, who grew up in San Anselmo, attended Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, traveling to campus in the train that ran at the time between the two towns.

She graduated from University of California at Berkeley in 1946, according to her daughter, Susan Angel.

“My mom was the first female student body president at Berkeley,” Angel said.

After college, Marchant was a director of the Marin County Campfire Girls before moving to Kentfield with her husband and starting a family.

Marchant later joined her husband in his real estate business, Marchant Associates, managing the Mill Valley office. She retired at age 65. Bud Marchant died in 2014.

Marchant will celebrate her 100th birthday this weekend with her extended family at the Odd Fellows Recreation Club in Guerneville.

“That’s what she chose to do for her birthday party,” Angel said. “Go camping.”

Information on the Camp Tamarancho project is online at shorturl.at/mnZ7c.