Our day began before dawn. Our team was to meet up at the “park and ride” lot by the fire station at 6am so we could make the 7am ferry at Mukilteo so we could be at Camp Casey by 8. Our team consisted of Rod and Joan Vroman with their grand daughter Erica, Barry McGee and Joanne Bigelow, Jeff Judy and his son Brenan and me, Steve Dana. Except for Joanne and Erica, all of us are Kiwanis Club members. All of us have been to camp before. It’s a long day, but it’s so worthwhile.
So what’s the big deal?
Well, this is a really low key big deal. It’s not done for the cameras or for gold medals unless they hang around the necks of the campers. It’s done purely for the good it brings to everyone involved. I can’t possibly do justice to the week of Camp in this space but I want to try. Here is my story.
At a time when the world’s attention is focused on the London Olympics and a gathering of the most athletic, gifted, hard working young people of our time, the North Central Kiwanis Club of Seattle is gathering another team of world class individuals at Camp Casey for an annual event that may not attract much media attention but may well change the lives of the attendees every bit as much as an Olympic experience.
This past week, from July 29 thru Saturday August 4, the North Central Seattle Kiwanis Club opened up their doors for the 46th annual Kiwanis Camp Casey Camp for Kids. A weeklong extravaganza that enables children under 18 who are disabled in some way to spend a week where they are the center of attention, away from their families for a time where they get a shot at being a part of the norm.
Make no mistake, these kids all know they have a disability that prevents them from leading normal lives like able bodied kids. Their whole lives have been spent in wheel chairs or on crutches or walkers. Camp allows them to be away from their families, to be with a hundred other kids very much like themselves, to share the experience of camp fires, sing-alongs, picnic lunches, meals in the mess hall and one on one support of a high school or college student counselor whose mission for the week is to make this the most memorable event of the year and maybe their lives.
Seattle Pacific University owns the grounds of the World War II facility on Whidbey Island that has operated as a venue for sports camps and leadership training functions since the early 1960’s. I happened to go there myself in 1964 and 1965 when I attended basketball camp sponsored by U of W alum and NBA player Bob Houbregs and Seattle Pacific Coach Les Habegger. And if truth be told, the facilities haven’t changed much since the end of WWII and in my experience are still the same almost fifty years later.
As I said, the world class team of all volunteers that gather to make camp happen have been doing so for almost fifty years. Some of the current volunteers have set aside the last days of July and the first days of August for ten years, some for almost twenty years and others are second generation volunteers. If you want to talk about athletes who train for a lifetime for the chance to earn fame and fortune tune into King 5 television for the Olympics. If you want to see dedication to doing something life changing for disabled children without a single expectation of recognition or reward come to Camp Casey. These volunteers are remarkable. I am humbled at the chance to be a part of the work they do even if it’s only for a single day. I am inspired by the amount of work they accomplish with so little resources.
The amount of effort it takes to put together a week at camp is almost unimaginable. But since they do it year after year, someone has worked out the kinks in the organization. The level of detail of every aspect of the week is mind boggling. And the truth is, without the help of other Kiwanis Clubs around the Sound they probably wouldn’t be able to make it happen either.
For our part, the Snohomish Kiwanis Club recruits a team of volunteers every year to help with support functions in the mess hall. Our team’s job is to help Bill and Bob by helping prep some of the food, setting the tables, clearing the tables, cleaning the mess hall after every meal and washing dishes which is my specialty.
Ours is not a skill job but it enables us to see the marvelous way the staff, the counselors and the residents interact with one another and the sheer look of joy on the faces of everyone involved even when you know the managers are putting out fires behind the scenes.
There aren’t many times in your life when you can do a job and get the benefit feedback almost instantaneously. The kids at camp come from homes where their parents and siblings have adapted their lives to having a disabled child in the family. They know the child needs regular attention twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. One of the benefits of Camp is the week off for the families of the kids. Who ever thinks about the life routine of a family with a disabled child? Okay maybe we think about it for a second, then we forget it since that family is different from our family.
Camp is a time for renewal for everyone involved. All I have to do to reorder my own priorities is to see how life is for these kids who never complain about being dealt a bad hand. Camp is about making lemonade and everyone who goes to camp comes away with a full glass. I wish more able bodied young people could come to camp to help so they could put their own lives into perspective and at the same time develop a personal commitment to helping others. Whether it’s through Kiwanis or some other outlet, we have to inspire kids at a young age to serve their fellow man, not for the credit or notoriety but simply for the good it does.
Organizations like the Jaycees provide an avenue for young people to develop leadership skills that serve them for the rest of their lives while benefiting the communities in which they live. I still try to live by the Jaycee Creed. Kiwanis is an organization that allows and encourages people of all ages, men and women, to make a contribution to serving their fellow man.
I’m just happy to be able to make a small contribution. Our challenge is to inspire our young people to take the experience of a week at camp as a counselor and parlay it into a lifetime of public service.
I have to believe that the folks who have come to Camp Casey in any and every capacity go home better people and have the spirit within them to inspire others to do the same.
If you want to help out the cause at Camp Casey or want to see more about it, click on the link below. The North Central Seattle Kiwanis club has a separate website for Camp.
http://www.campcasey.org/index.php
The ride home last night was quiet as we made our way to the Columbia Beach Ferry landing at Clinton. We were all tired. But even as tired as we were we couldn’t imagine how tired those core volunteers were that spend the whole week there.
I will go back to Camp every year as long as I am physically able to make a contribution. Of all the projects we work on as Kiwanians, a day at Camp Casey is every bid as rewarding as any we do all year. I am honored to be a part of it.
