Eating spaghetti with no hands, getting painted green from head to toe, painted fingernails, catching ducks, letting a goat stand on my back, and getting duck taped to a wall. Besides being part of the best week of my life, these activities encompass only a fraction of the fun experienced at a Hole in the Wall camp, where I volunteered a week of my summer after my freshman year.
I never had an opportunity to attend a summer camp as a kid and so I had no idea what to expect. During training, we were told our main objective was to give the campers the best week of their life and to let that guide our actions. It was blended illnesses week and I was assigned to a cabin with the youngest campers (6-9 years old). The campers arrived the following day and I soon learned that all I needed to do was let go of all my inhibition and just play like a kid again.
One day after lunch, we all put on old clothes and painted each other green (our age group’s color) from head to toe. After getting ice cold water rung out on my head, left over food flung at me with cooking spoons, and a handful of pudding from each camper spread on my face, the joy on the faces of the campers was indescribable. After the event, I hosed down outside the cabin, went inside, took a shower, and proceeded to lie down on the bed only to later discover that my ear was still full of pudding! The Silly Olympics, as the above mentioned activities suggest, allowed my campers to indulge in the fact that there were no limits their cabin counselor would go for them to have fun and I loved every minute of it.
“Watch the bobber and when you see it go under pull up on the fishing poll. There it goes, pull up, now start reeling and keep the tip of the poll high!” At dinner, the camper I helped earlier that day went up to add a chain to the chain of thanks. He said into the microphone, “I want to thank Brian who helped me catch my first fish today.” This was a kid who took nine pills daily, along with two solutions of medicine, and got a shot every night to combat his medical problems. Between his comments at dinner, the way his face lit up earlier that day when he caught his first fish, and how he insisted I take his cherished Boggy Bear at the end of the week, completely melted my heart. To know that I made just one day-or one breathe for that matter-of his life better, changed my entire outlook on life.
I can honestly say when I left that camp I was “messed up.” The resiliency of these kids astonished me. While I believe we accomplished our goal of giving the campers the best week of their lives there were some side affects. It was also the best week of my life. Since then, I have spent over 1,200 hours serving with organizations such as an orphanage this past spring break in the Dominican Republic and last summer building a school on a mission trip to Guatemala.
This summer may inevitably be the last time that I can completely detach from the pressures that a career in medicine demands and volunteer my time and passion for medicine to preserving the spirit of children facing illnesses. When I first thought of the idea of touring the Hole in the Wall camps, it was as if a light bulb magically turned on inside my head. I, by no means, am an impulsive person but as soon as the idea hit me, I went to Borders and bought a U.S. and world map. I went home and mapped all the camps out, literally.
Thanks to the serviceship I received from FSU completely funding my trip, I will spend one session at each of the five U.S. camps and the two internationally (Ireland and England) that allow volunteers who speak only English. My main goal of this project is simple and that is to help give the campers the best week of their lives.
My expected learning outcomes are tri-fold; personal, academic, and professional. On a personal level it will undoubtedly be the best summer of my life and I can already see my self 70 years from now in a rocking chair reminiscing about this summer with my grandchildren. I expect to grow as an individual, as my first experience at Boggy Creek allowed me to do.
On an academic level, there is no class that could educate me more on medical issues then this summer experience. I was blown away by how much the full time cabin counselors knew about a wide range of medical illnesses including their symptoms, precautions, treatments, and such. This new found knowledge will give me an unfamiliar step up going into medical school.
On a professional level, these experiences will certainly guide my actions as a future physician. For example, I might want to come back and serve at these camps as a physician or get a group of medical students together to serve at these camps during medical school.
I plan to impact the communities that I serve in two ways. As mentioned, I will do whatever it takes to give the children that I serve the best week of their lives. Along with that, I will also be able to provide them with a safe environment, both emotionally and physically. Without the presence of volunteers, the Hole in the Wall camps would not be able to run; additionally, these camps often experience a deficit of male volunteers. That being said, I will have an impact on the male campers as a role model, and the camp community as a male volunteer.
My service will also serve as a chance to shed a positive light on Florida State University and its commitment to service. I will seize the opportunity to reflect well on our university by serving as a student representative, which might also help to alleviate some misconceptions of FSU as a party school, something especially detrimental for pre-medical students. If one week at Camp Boggy Creek had such a large impact on my life, I can not imagine how greatly this summer will impact me. Here’s to the best summer of my life!
