Through 20 years of outdoors adventures with her now-grown family, Linda Collier always thought there was more to camping than just sitting around.

She now knows that can be the case.

It was an eventful night last year at Lewis & Clark State Park near Rushville, Mo., when Linda and her husband, Nick, got a knock on the door of their camping trailer from the nephew of a man who was having an apparent heart attack.

The man had come to the right place.

The Colliers, as campground hosts, were the contact point for campers in case of emergency. Linda called 911, while Nick went to the front entrance to escort the ambulance to the proper campsite.

“I went to the campsite, and a couple of the other tent campers had started CPR,” Linda said. “They were raising two little grandkids. I took care of them and the wife and took (the kids) over to the shower house to get them dressed.”

Sadly, the man passed away. Thankfully, campers in Missouri State Parks can rely on volunteer camp hosts for a variety of needs.

While seldom are the duties as nerve-wracking as what the Colliers encountered last summer, it’s clear that they and others are an important ingredient to a pleasant camping experience.

“Generally when you look for a campground host, you try to find someone that’s very customer-oriented, because they are the camper’s first contact,” Lewis & Clark Supt. Daniel Brigman said. “You want somebody that’s as friendly as they can be. And, fortunately, most of the hosts love to camp. This is just part of their life.”

It was seven camping seasons ago that Linda Collier talked her husband into trying the campground host experience. It’s strictly a volunteer job, with the only compensation being a free full-hookup campsite (the only full hookup in the campground), mileage reimbursement for the infrequent trips home and a couple of vouchers for — you guessed it — free camping in Missouri’s state parks.

Few of them go to waste, despite the fact that these campground hosts can camp from April through October as guests of the state.

“At the end of the six months, that’s our time to camp,” Linda said. “We plan on camping, then closing up and getting ready to winterize.”

Brigman said most campground hosts will sell firewood, collect fees, upgrade reservations and clean up campsites. They are responsible for tagging the campsite posts with the proper permits and marking those that are reserved for that night.

And, Brigman said, “They try to resolve any kind of problems as best they can.”

The Colliers, from St. Joseph, are spending April through September at Lewis & Clark State Park — their park of choice for most of their 20 years of camping — while others prefer shorter stays at various parks.

That’s Ron Burton’s style. He prefers a more nomadic life, free from the encumbrances of real estate.

“We spend all winter in Arizona and spend our summers here,” said Burton, who recently finished a stint at Weston Bend State Park and moved to Wallace State Park in Cameron. “I don’t own any property.”

Prospective campground hosts each year must submit a Volunteer In Parks application, on which they can specify up to three parks of their choice and the months of availability.

The nomad seem to be in the minority, at least in Northwest Missouri.

Dan Nicholson of St. Joseph, who operated Dick’s Auto Parts on St. Joe Avenue for 40 years, calls Big Lake State Park near Bigelow, Mo., his home from April until November, commuting to mow his lawn and that of his parents. He’s in his fourth year at the park.

“I was born in Mound City, and this was kind of like being home, you know,” Nicholson said. “This is where I always camped, so when I had the chance to come up here, I did.”

Big Lake State Park feels like home to Nancy Athen, too.

She and her husband Dennis, residents of Fairfax, had a home across the lake for years. In addition, Nancy spent from 1983 to 1996 as a full-time Missouri Parks Division employee at the park.

“When I worked here we always said we’d love to come back some day,” Nancy said.

She and her husband submitted the volunteer paperwork shortly before she retired from state employment last June 29. She anticipated some leisurely time away from responsibilities, but almost immediately got a phone call from her former boss, Supt. Gary Parker. His choice for campground hosts had fallen through, and he was desperate to find a replacement for the very next weekend — the Independence Day holiday.

Big Lake State Park is unlike many other smaller parks in the state in several ways. First, it boasts two campground hosts. Its hosts don’t have to handle money at check-in as others do, and it boasts a couple from St. Joseph that stays through the winter.

“They were the ones here this winter that helped us after the ice storm,” Parker said. “They actually got cut off from the ice storm and were stranded because of all the downed trees in the roadway. We didn’t get that mess all cleaned up until the first of May.”