Our Stories
One time in my life that has been really influential that definitely will stick with me my whole life
has been volunteering at camp sunshine, and it's for children with life threatening illnesses. So
the model of the camp is that every week is a different illness, so I always go for Fanconi
Anemia or FA. So all the kids there have FA or they’re their siblings and then the parents go too.
And during the week the parents go to information sessions and they learn about clinical trials
and they go to support groups and talk to doctors and things like that. And then the children are
just supposed to be regular kids, so for once in their life if they’re ill, it’s like, not a barrier for
them. So, they get special equipment so they can still swim, we play board games like normal,
we roast s’mores, we climb on the rock wall together, we play volleyball, we go out on the lake,
and we kayak, and we paddleboard, and things like that. And I’ve done it three years. I did it in
highschool, I used to go for a week every summer, and it was like the most life changing
experience for me. Because my sister had done it in highschool so I knew that it would be fun, I
just was really nervous. And I went to camp sunshine and I fell in love with the experience. The
volunteers were so excited to be there and everybody had a shared goal of just wanting to help
the kids have the best week of their summer. And then the kids are really inspiring because
they’ve had such hardships and they’re so young, like I was working with 6 to 8 year olds and 9
and 12 year olds, and they’ve experienced way more than I ever have, because I’ve been very
blessed with great health. And seeing their resilience was so inspiring and then also, such a
learning opportunity because in those populations it’s really easy to be like, just to focus on
someone’s strength but it’s really important to see them as, like, a full person and that, you know
if you’re 6 years old then you have a chronic illness, you’re still 6 years old. So you still have to
be treated like a kid and you have to play and you have to run around, and if you get scrapped it
might be bigger deal than if a different kid gets scrapped, but we have to deal with that because
you still should have a full childhood, so getting to help them with that experience and give their
parents rest and time to find support, was really, really amazing. It definitely has influenced how
I see my career path and the work that I want to do because I really wanna benefit that
population in particular.