Camp Esperanza is the first sleep-away summer camp for kids and teens with juvenile arthritis, formed in 1985. Currently, I am the Program Director in charge of Camp Esperanza (best job ever!). I also attended this camp as a child and young teen and returned during college as a volunteer counselor.
As usual, I cannot find the words to express how much this camp means to me. Here is a video we made over the summer to show to potential donors, new families and volunteers. I got to be behind the scenes almost the whole time and had lots of fun, only stressed a little.
I do make an appearance on camera and I did pronounce arthritis "awrthritis". Maybe it's because I think arthritis can be "awe"-some, at times; or maybe it's because I did not have the time for speech therapy, because I was busy in physical and occupational therapy instead. You can find me, briefly, at age 9 and 26 in the video as well.
Enjoy!
Jenn that's so awesome!! We have a very similar thing here, organised by Arthritis Care called Joint Potential. It's on a much smaller scale, usually there's about 15-20 people that go and we have two age ranges 12-16 and 17-25s (which is the one i go to even though i'm almost a bit too old but they let me tag along ;) ) and yeah there's about 3-4 weekend events per year, some are indoors doing workshops and talking about self-image and working on boosting confidence etc, and once a year we have an outdoor camp with activities like kayaking, mountain biking, etc. So much fun! So yeah..totally support what you're doing, it's so good for young people with arthritis, just meeting others in the same situation. I've made lots of friends at Joint Potential and when I was diagnosed it really really saved my sanity. Keep up the good work, it's so important! :) (god i've ranted on quite a bit here, sorry!)
ReplyDelete