Games, crafts, funny songs, friendly counselors and s'mores are essential for a memorable summer camp experience. Cabins and woods are optional.
Just ask J'rdre Williams, 6, who attended Camp To Go at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding during the first week of June.
 Photos by BARRY WILLIAMS/Special |
| Making summer memories: Campers, volunteers and staff found plenty to smile about during Camp To Go at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding.
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| Kat Cooper, Nyleta Singleton and Ateyra Lewis, 7, (from left) play a game during Camp To Go. |
She came to the hospital with a family member who needed a physical. In the waiting room, counselors and children were sitting around a pretend camp fire, singing songs and playing games. They didn't have to ask J'rdre twice if she wanted to join the circle.
"When she found out that camp would go on all week, she begged me to bring her," said J'rdre's aunt, Annette Williams. "We've been here every day and she enjoys it all."
Camp To Go is a pilot program of Camp Twin Lakes, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide recreational, therapeutic and educational programs for children with serious medical, physical and emotional challenges.
"Children with serious illnesses and various diagnoses need more than just their medical needs met; they also need to be healthy emotionally, socially and spiritually," said Eric Robbins, executive director of Camp Twin Lakes, which is in Rutledge.
"But some children are too sick to go to camp, and others couldn't afford it, so we decided to bring camp to them," said Nyleta Singleton, CTRS, a certified therapeutic recreational specialist with Camp Twin Lakes. "We wanted to take their minds off being at the hospital.
"Hospitals do a lot of arts and crafts with patients, but we wanted to add some activities that would give kids some social skills and happy memories to take away with them. Instead of just sitting in the waiting room, they could have some fun."
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding is affiliated with Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Its location, with busy clinics and a bustling emergency room, seemed like the perfect spot to hold a camp.
Sweet surprise
Patients and young visitors at the hospital were surprised when they were invited to pan for gold, angle for plastic fish, bowl, play balloon volleyball and sing silly songs. They also got camp T-shirts and snacks.
Each day had a different theme. On sports day, athletes from the WNBA's Atlanta Dream and Georgia State University participated. For space day, counselors donned pipe-cleaner antennae.
"We made constellations on butcher paper, with glow-in-the-dark stars, and blasted off rocket ships (film canisters filled with Alka-Seltzer and water)," Singleton said.
Robbins said that the organization will take Camp To Go to Augusta's MCG Health Children's Medical Center in August, and hopes to expand the program to more hospitals next year.
Johnnathan Ward, chaplain and a member of the Hughes Spalding Patient and Family Support Team, said that Camp To Go "has brought a new energy to this place."
The hospital is less scary when you're pretending to be a race-car driver or an elephant.
"Kids need to still be kids — even at the hospital — and this helps to reduce their anxiety and stress," he said. "Parents also enjoy getting to see their kids laugh and smile."
'Kids just playing and having fun'
Camp To Go was fun for Dr. Cyrus Samai, a cardiologist at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Sibley Heart Center. After accompanying a group of 160 young heart patients to Camp Twin Lakes earlier this year, he wanted to see how a camp would work at a hospital.
"My staff and I spend our whole lives taking care of sick kids," he said. "The beauty of going to Camp Twin Lakes is that I get to see the product of all my work — kids just playing and having fun. This brings some of that same experience to kids stuck in the hospital."
The camp was a fun training ground for volunteers like Carlesha Wright, RT, a recent graduate of Georgia State University's respiratory therapy program. Wright wants to work at a pediatric hospital, so volunteering at Camp To Go was a good fit.
"We've heard a lot of good feedback from the kids and their parents," she said. "You know they're having fun when they want to come back the next day."
Meyokia Brantley, a senior nursing student at Clayton State University in Morrow, loved singing and playing with the children.
"It's really nice to see how happy these kids are," she said. "A lot of them probably don't have fun activities like this at home."
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