Last month I went to summer camp. It had all the typical activities – horseback
riding, woodshop, archery, boating and fishing, arts and crafts. But it was unlike any camp I had ever been
to.
This camp focuses on safety, respect and love. And they mean
it.
I heard about Hole in the Wall from seeing a segment
on CBS Sunday morning last year. After
watching it I thought, “I want to go to there!”
I submitted an application in January (got my three recommendation
letters and required shots) and was accepted in April. There is an 80 percent return rate for female
volunteers so I was very lucky to get in.
The camp director mentioned this at the camp volunteer breakfast, comparing
a new female volunteer at camp to seeing a leprechaun. I muttered aloud, “I’m no leprechaun!” and
everyone laughed.
Hole in the Wall accepts kids who cannot attend any
other kind of camp due to a diagnosis of cancer, a serious blood disease, acquired or hereditary immune disorder or metabolic disease. Camp runs Fridays to
Thursdays for nine weeks in the summer.
My week was Session 2. Campers
attend for free, and siblings are welcome.
One hundred sixteen kids, age 7-14, were in Session 2. My cabin had eight girls ages 9-10. Some of my girls were siblings of other sick
campers and no medical issues. We
received information about our cabin kids the night before they arrived so we
knew what to look out for.
Even though you understand that the vast majority of
kids have medical issues, you wouldn’t know it by looking at most of them. They look like regular kids at camp, and we
treat them like regular kids at camp.
That is why they love this
camp. Yes, we pay special attention to
their medical needs and have nurses around, and an infirmary, but the focus is
on them having an awesome time. How
appropriate that the 2013 camp theme, is “The Road to Awesome”.
Each day is structured fairly the same, with some
variation (and deference to weather).
8:30 a.m. Breakfast.
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9:30 a.m. Cabin cleanup – each girl rotates doing a chore.
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10 a.m. Morning programs - each unit goes to a different
morning program each day. For
background, there are five units within the camp structure and each unit is a
different color. There are three cabins
per unit.
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12:30 p.m. Lunch.
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2 to 3 p.m. Rest hour.
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3:30 to 5:30 Kids choice of activity. They write down their choices at lunch and
are randomly picked.
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5:30 p.m. Dinner.
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Approx. 7 p.m. Evening activity (campfire, stage night,
awards).
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9:30 p.m. Bed time (older campers at 10 p.m.). The bedtime routine consists of the usual
brushing teeth, etc. and then playing some calm, quiet games. Then cabin chat (I will explain more about
this later).
Meal time is very structured. The kids sit at assigned tables at the dining hall and stay
there. Their cabin counselors bring
their food to them. Great idea, but tiring. You finally sit down to eat and someone needs
a drink or a bagel (they love
bagels!). I am a slow eater but learned
to eat quickly this week. On a side
note, I was able to try every kind of Newman’s Own cereal, salad dressing, and
juice. I didn’t try the popcorn.
Paul Newman died in 2008, but his spirit definitely
lives on at camp. Before meals, “grace”
is a song that everyone sings together:
This camp’s been good to me.
This camp’s been good to me.
Thank you, Paul, for this hole in the wall.
This camp’s been good to me.
A collage photo is on the side of the sports and
recreation building, comprised of the hundreds of kids who have attended
camp. He is watching over us all.
I heard a story that he used to visit the camp and
sit with the kids at meals. I’m sure
they didn’t know he was a famous actor, just a nice man who started the
camp. During one meal, a kid looked at a
juice carton on the table (with Newman’s face on it) and then looked at Paul
and asked, “Are you lost?”
I do have to mention that after each meal there is
singing and dancing. Popular songs are
“Ice Cream and Cake” and “Stars In The Sky”.
Most of the songs have hand motions.
I find it interesting that they dance around after filling bellies with
food, but I did not see anyone toss their meal.
I enjoyed the after-meal festivities for the most part but admit after
about three days I refused to dance or sing the “Ice Cream and Cake” song. It got to the point that one night, while
walking back to LuLu’s Lodge, I found myself walking to the beat of “ice cream
and cake cake cake”. OMG.
The morning programs make up the bulk of the
activity at camp, and every camper gets to participate(weather permitting).
Adventure (for the older campers). This includes a rock-climbing wall and zip
line.
Archery.
Arts and crafts, woodshop and the cooking zone are in these buildings.
Boating and fishing.
Horseback riding.
Pool.
In the afternoons the kids can choose from the main programs
and some others: guitar, music, sports
and rec and theater.
One of the most popular programs is the pool. It’s heated to around 85 degrees to
accommodate the sickle cell kids, who are not supposed to be cold. I soon learned that if the air temperature is
too low, the pool is not an option for the entire unit. They wouldn’t make the sickle cell kids sit
out or do something else, they have everyone do the same thing. Luckily for us, Saturday was a warm, sunny
day. One of the girls who didn’t even
get in the pool last year due to her skin allergies was like a fish this year
and ended up swimming in the deep end (from one end to the other) to get her
official swimming bracelet. That’s a
really big deal for the kids.
Boating and fishing is another fun program. That’s where I met Marshall, another
volunteer, who has been at camp for many years and is the boating and fishing
expert. He used to run his own camp in
Michigan before he started volunteering at Hole in the Wall. We were able to have a nice chat while the
kids patiently fished. He had finished
law school when he got the opportunity to buy land in Michigan along Crystal
Lake. When he asked his father for a
loan, his father asked him when he was going to grow up. Marshall replied, “Never.” He is true to his word, helping kids of all
ages catch fish at age 75.
The oldest age group of campers is the only one that
is allowed to do the rock wall and the zip line. Camp does allow volunteers to do this one morning
each week. We met at 7:30 a.m. Sunday
for our adventure “baptism.” Safety is
No. 1 so after donning the safety equipment, I made it up the wall. I had never done a zip line before. It was incredible! Definitely worth getting up extra early.
Unlike the morning program, where the unit goes
together with all counselors, in the afternoon everyone divvies up and goes to
separate programs dependent on what the kids selected. One day I had a choice, without knowing which
girl I was going with, and chose guitar.
One of my girls chose that and when we got there she was the only
camper. Usually the counselors do not
participate fully in the program, they just help the kids out as needed (we do
get in the pool). Since she was the only
camper, the “guitar guy” asked if I wanted to play too. Of course!
He gave us each a small, three-string guitar with color-coded stickers
for the notes. After two hours, we had
learned four songs (and I had one sore pointer finger). We went back the next day for more practice
and were asked to play with the guitar guy in stage night Tuesday. Just my girl, me and another counselor who
would sing.
Let me back up a bit and say that the girl (I will
call her Susie – not her real name) had backed out of two activities with her
cabin mates already. The girls are big
on playing cups and she had practiced with them, but backed out of the kids
campfire show Sunday night. She also
backed out of the clown skit for stage night.
I admit I would not have been surprised if she had backed out of the
guitar. We went backstage to get our
guitars and get ready to go onstage. She
asked, “What if I mess up?” I told her
to just keep strumming and catch up on the next song verse. She said she was scared and I told her I was
too, but that we had practiced and knew the song, and we would be fine. We made it onstage and she was great!! We played The Lion Sleeps Tonight. We weren’t perfect, but we had fun and I was
incredibly proud of her. The smile on
her face as we walked off the stage was priceless. I pulled her aside before we went back to our
seats and told her to remember this moment.
She was nervous, but she had practiced and prepared herself and look
what she did! I told her not to let fear
keep her from doing things like this, that she could accomplish a lot by just
getting out there and doing things.
Definitely my highlight of the week.
I have to add that some of my other girls played the
cups and sang the cups song, and were awesome as well. I admit I had never done the cups nor heard
the song. I can now kind-of do cups and
whenever I hear the cup song on the radio I smile thinking about all of my
girls.
I could write all day about this camp, but will
cover just one more topic – cabin chat.
Once the kids are in their beds and calmed down, we turn down the lights
and light a candle that is placed in the middle of the floor. Each time the main counselor goes through the
rules of cabin chat (it sounds like the rules to fight club).
What is said in cabin chat stays
in cabin chat.
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One person speaks at a time.
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Challenge by choice (you don’t
have to talk if you don’t want to).
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The response to any comment is
either snapping your fingers or rubbing your hands together.
Then
the counselor asks a question. Ours
ranged from “If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would you
have dinner with, where, and what would you eat?” to “What was the most fun
thing you did today?” Lots of girls
wanted to have dinner with Taylor Swift.
It’s
very cool to listen to what these girls have to say. The voices pop up from all over the room and
some girls end up with multiple answers.
During the last night of camp, the question was, “If you could create a
world, what kind of world would it be?”
More than one said they would create a world just like camp. Others said they wanted a world where no one
was sick or sad.
Cabin
chat lasts about 10 to 15 minutes or however long it takes them to say what
they want. After they are done, the
counselors say goodnight to each of the campers. The “rule” of saying goodnight is that when
the counselor comes around, they kid can give them a hug, a high five or a
thumbs up. Whatever they are comfortable
with. Each night I got a hug from all
but one, who gave me a high five. I was
cool with that. On the last night, I got
a hug. Yes!!
I
had an early flight the next morning so I missed the parents picking them
up. Maybe it was for the best. I may have been a bit emotional. As I walked down the concourse to my gate I
did tear up a little. I missed them
already!
There
is not much time to socialize with other counselors, but I did meet some
wonderful people. My cabin counselors
Steff, Charlotte, Joanne and Hillary.
Kelsi, Stef, and Brandi. Nurses
Rachael and Wendy. My roommate
Jackie. My suite mates Michelle and Nancy. Jeffrey the Fart (we got clown nicknames
during the week). John the bicyclist
(check out the Angel Ride). Bink
and Moo Cha Cha (from Big Apple Clowns).
Ellen the volunteer coordinator (“don’t be creepy”). Matty the camp director – if anyone has
passion for their job, it’s him. And my
hat is off to all the full time counselors.
These “kids” are in or just out of college and basically run the
place. They have extensive training and
it shows. Simply amazing. I still can’t believe they do this for nine
weeks. In-a-row. They must be singing “Ice Cream and Cake” for
months after camp ends.
I
feel truly blessed to have been a small part of this camp for one week,
especially during its 25th anniversary year. I want to be part of the 80 percent of women
who come back. This camp has definitely
been good to me and I pray that it continues to be good to kids of all ages for
many years to come.
Thank
you, Paul, for this hole in the wall.
