For the past three years, I have volunteered at The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, in Ashford, Connecticut. The Camp offers year-round programming for children with cancer, sickle cell, HIV/AIDS, hemophilia and other serious and life threatening conditions. A majority of their programming happens during the summer, in the form of an overnight camp. They also have family and camper weekends in the fall and spring. The one-week camp sessions and weekends are completely free of charge for the campers and attract campers from all over the United States.
Camp is a magical place where children who are battling illnesses can come and completely defy expectations and reach outside their comfort zones to accomplish things they never thought possible. I have volunteered for an overnight week in the summer for the past 3 years as well as during the fall weekends. Although the camp in Connecticut is the original camp, the Serious Fun Children’s Network, which was founded by Paul Newman, has grown and supports camps all over the world. This summer, I am volunteering as a “cara”, the Irish word for friend, for a one week camp session at Barretstown, which is an overnight camp in Ireland. The session I am volunteering for has children attending from the UK, Ireland, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Cyprus, Italy and Romania. For more information about these special camps, visit - http://www.seriousfunnetwork.org
Before and after camp, I will be exploring Ireland, France and Italy. In Ireland, I will be spending time in Dublin as well as a hiking trip to the Wicklow Mountains. While in France, I will be experiencing the exciting city of Paris and the lovely cote d' azur - Nice and St. Tropez. Milan, Lake Como, Venice, Florence and Rome are on the agenda in Italy. I hope to experience the traditional tourist sites as well as the little known, can't - find - in -the - guide book, truly unique, places.
What I hope to bring back from my trip and into the classroom:
- Information to connect with our first grade Community Unit (hospitals, camps, rural, urban and suburban areas in Europe, good global citizenship, information on international communities) Continue partnership with Serious Fun Network in collecting art supplies for children at Hasbro Hospital
- Diversity workshop about children with illness and physical disabilities
- Children doing research through reading about Italy, France and Ireland
- Reading traditional tales from each country in reading groups
- A sense of adventure, independence, wonder and excitement for experiencing and learning new things
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