We - campers, counselors, parents, medical professionals- come to camp and are forever changed. It is these shared experiences - the fun, the laughter, the tears, the magic, the community, friendship, and love - that resonate in our heart. Stars in the Sky, Bring the Summer Right Back to Me celebrates these shared experiences through 265 beautiful stories. I believe by sharing our experiences at camp, we share a bit of our heart and breathe life into memories. Our stories are linked, yours and mine, and they are linked with countless others, both in our pasts and in our futures. These stories too shall live, for we are all one and they become a part of us. All proceeds donated.
Go. Serve. Love.
*To protect the safety + identity of campers, there are no pictures shown with faces or names used.* I spent two summers in Eustis, Florida at Camp Boggy Creek as a camp counselor and the pool specialist of the Shamu Pool. Camp Boggy Creek is a not-for-profit residential camp for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses. Every week in the summer, the camp brings in around 150 campers with illnesses like cancer, epilepsy, transplants, immunodeficiency, sickle cell, hemophilia, and others. Each year, the camp has over 1000 campers come through its gates with a mission to foster a spirit of joy by creating a free, safe, and medically-sound camp environment that enriches the lives of children with these illnesses and their families. Camp provides and opportunities to let campers join other campers that have similar experiences and allow children to forget about their illness and have fun. While working at camp, I served as an advocate and role model for children aged 6-16. Through communication and collaboration with a diverse team, I brainstormed and problem-solved to give children a camping experience that was fun, safe, and medically sound. In the ever-changing environment that is camp, I creatively planned and facilitated activities, keeping in mind the age, energy level, and dynamics of each particular group of campers. I ensured the well-being of campers: guiding and motivating them, developing positive interactions between them, and ensuring safety, all the while assisting with their individual needs and empowering them to be independent individuals.
Camp Boggy Creek is my home away from home. Among the 1000+ campers that came to camp every summer, I was able to learn from personal stories of illness and watch them come together to smile, play, and have fun. Camp made me grow outside of my comfort zone and allowed me to experience many things for the first time: I wrote an individual story explaining the magic and true life miracles witnessed on a daily basis at camp, as well did my peers to publish a book for camp. Every week I witnessed campers experience being accepted for being themselves. I learned how to be flexible, as I was tested several times to resolve conflict. I had to think critically as I had to make sure everyone had an equal opportunity, whether it was to have the whole camp wear swim caps so the girl that just had brain surgery felt included at the pool or let a little boy be my assistant life guard since chemotherapy made him too weak to swim. Every day, I gave unconditional and endless love to children that never experienced it before and sacrificed any individual time I had in order to give each child the best week of their life. Camp is where I met the world’s greatest children and the most beautiful friends that became family. I owe so much of my life to Paul Newman for founding a camp that is the closest thing to heaven on Earth. As one of 21 students from Loras selected to go to Guatemala in January 2013, I attended bimonthly meetings to learn about the culture and country, as well as the parish’s project, mission, and vision we were serving. During the twelve days that I was in Guatemala, we visited Guatemala City, Livingston, and Antigua. Spending the majority of our time up in the mountains, I interacted and mentored children of the community, played sports, and made arts and crafts with them. Our primary objective was participation in community gentrification. I assisted by painting buildings and was integral in the building and creation of a medical facility for the parish’s 54 villages. This building was huge so that the indigenous people would not have to travel five hours by foot to the nearest hospital. The dream of this facility was to attract medical professionals from around the world to come and volunteer their time to help the people of these villages. In addition to service, I was able to witness the negative impact of outside global forces firsthand in the remote mountainous Mayan village of Semachaca. There were many days spent in sickness from the “Guatemalan Plague,” (food poisoning/adjustment, boiling water with bleach), hours upon hours walked in search of water, eight hour road trips down the mountain in the back of a pick up truck with 20 other individuals practically sitting on your lap, and countless adventures in the streams and jungle. Guatemala was beautiful in many ways, but I never felt closer to the stars while laying in my sleeping bag at night. The view of a live planetarium above your head every night was absolutely breathtaking!
I hold this experience very close to my heart because I helped establish community among the other students and the Mayans we were serving. Together we fulfilled the mission and contributed to the vision of bringing more medical staff volunteers to the area. This trip validated the importance of building relationships, helping communities, impacting lives, and constructing change. Through interaction, I was able to develop additional medical Spanish-speaking skills. Spending the majority of our time in the mountains, I learned how to live simply and the importance of service and giving back. I spent many days in sickness from heat, exhaustion, and malnutrition and walked hours in the jungle in search of water in the sky rocketing heat. Despite my hardships, I look back on this experience and what my team accomplished as a catalyst to one day return and provide medical services as a token of my gratitude to this community for making me in large part the physician I one day will become. In January 2012, just two years after the earthquake that hit Haiti, I had the opportunity to go on a service trip with four other students and two mentors through Loras. I had never went out of the country, and what better way to do so by helping others? Prior to going, I attended bimonthly meetings to learn about the culture and country, as well as the Haitian Project we would be working with and serving. While in Haiti, we worked at the Louverature Cleary School; I attended prayer and reflection, interacted and mentored students, engaged in the surrounding community, and participated in several reconstruction projects. We built and reconstructed playgrounds, walkways, and buildings. We learned about and participated in the area’s waste management system by sorting food, metal, recycling, and garbage. We spent many hours shoveling compost, digging 8’ by 8’ holes, and burning garbage using an incinerator. After one of the school days, I was even able to teach the girls of the school how to play the game of basketball. This service trip was so inspiring and absolutely beautiful. All seven of us developed a new perspective on life—one that focused solely on the relationship with others and sharing God’s love and grace. After returning back home, my group and I continued to collect donations and give presentations about the Haitian Project to our school and community. We even dedicated a soccer game on the regular season schedule specifically to raising money and awareness for Haiti! Haiti by far has been the most influential and inspiring experience of my life. This country made me realize the importance of giving myself to others and taught me the importance of building relationships with others, myself, and God. I pray to one day return to Haiti to give back even more. Haiti came into my life again, as during my first summer at camp one of my campers was from the Santo Five neighborhood where I had volunteered. That week at camp is one I will never forget as my heart was filled extra with God’s love and one of his angels before me. "Live Simply so others can Simply Live." |
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