Disney World is not the happiest place on earth

Camp is. It’s true. The happiness you see at Disney pales in comparison to what I get to see here every day! Not that I don’t love Disney world and all, because I do. It’s great! But camp is something else entirely.

One thing that makes it so great: the four point pulley!! Here at camp we have a zipline that kids can climb up a flight of stairs to get to. At camp however, we have many campers who are in wheelchairs or have limited mobility. This is where the four point pulley comes in!! we use this device to lift kids out of their wheel chairs and straight up to the zipline! How does it work? There is a big triangular piece of super strong material that the kids sit on. From there we attach a few carabineers to get all hooked up right. This happens on the ground. On one of the ropes there is a special pull that the kids can use to get up there if their arms are strong enough. If not, we just pull them up! The four point pulley takes care of all the weight of the campers. Once they reach the top, the CTL staff at the top of the zipline hooks in all the different hooks and once the kid is in, they let him or her down the zipline! Because it’s on hydraulics, we can lower the kids straight in to their chair from the zipline. As one TBI camper once said on the radiothon: “My favorite activity is the zipline because it felt like I was flying”. umm…. awesome. it's pretty incredible to see kids get to do things they never thought they would be able to, or were told that they couldn't. and what's happier than that?

what is better than seeing a kid with spina bifida, who was told he would never be able to ride a horse because of his disorder, trot around the arena? what's better than seeing someone with balance issues, who was told they probably wouldn't ever ride a bike because of their brain tumor, tbi, etc, ride around the field on their own and get in to a kayak by themselves without it flipping over?

tonight is the talent show. what's better than seeing a bunch of kids step on to the stage with pride and assurance and see them show the camp what they love to do? and what's happier than seeing kids finally be able to act like normal kids?

I love watching the campers hang out together, but what’s really cool is seeing kids of different ages and from different camps saying hey and helping one another. Yesterday I was walking through the pool after TBI and some Wannaklot cabins had a session together, and I saw one of the W. teens standing next to, talking to, and helping one of the younger guys from TBI who has crutches. It was awesome!!

bottom line: camp is the best place on earth and exaCTLy where i want to be!! and YOU should volunteer at a camp to truly experience the awesomeness that camp twin lakes provides! www.camptwinlakes.org

this week

it's another week here at camp twin lakes!! once again we have 2 camps here: Camp Wannaklot, which is for kids with hemophilia and other blood clotting disorders, and TBI which is for kids and young adults with traumatic brain injuries. both of these camps are awesome!!!!

i have a wannaklot cabin this week with 14-16 year old girls. they're a fun group! also this week, one of my friends' younger brothers is a camper! and i had him at a session already. one of the things that's really cool about this camp is that they have a foreign exchange kinda program going on with germany, and a few of the campers (and a counselor) are from there!

so far i have had a pretty good mix of sessions with the different camps, and i've gotten to meet a ton of kids. one of the older guys from TBI loves the CeeTLes (and life in general) and is always really excited when we play and jumps up and down and it's really awesome! i just hope he doesn't get too excited and jump into the drum set. he's come close! haha. i would LOVE to have a music therapy session with him! that kid's smile just makes my day whenever i see it.

last night was the pool party for TBI and they had a band from Songs for Kids come. the band was awesome. the kids were having fun in the pool and dancing by the band. there is no way you could leave that place with a frown!! after the band finished, we told them how awesome they were (of course!) and i had noticed the one guy's son playing this round pad. so i asked to look at it. I AM OBSESSED!! it's called the hand sonic 10 and it is the coolest toy ever. it's a round pad (on a stand) that has buttons kinda like a keyboard. you can set it to different percussion themes, like drum set, african, etc, and each button on the pad is a different sound. and the buttons are super sensitive. you really only have to touch them to make a sound. there is another part that is at the one edge where you wave your hand over it to make noise. it's so cool!!! and i need it. they guy who owned it told me to just play with it, so we put it on different stuff! i can imagine the music therapy sessions using this thing...... epic.

after pulling myself away from that incredible toy, i went to wannaklot's dance!! super fun as well! by the time i got there it was just the teens left, too!

i love camp!!!!!

My heart has been stolen….

…by an eight year old boy. Actually I don’t know how old he is. He looks about the size of a 6 year old, but one of the things the one camp director told us that a lot of kids look smaller than average for their age because of the kidney disease. He has a scar on his head and doesn’t really talk much. Anyways this little boy is adorable. He air drums beside me when the CeeTLes play sometimes, or just smiles at me. Once I let him hold down the hi hat while I played. I just had to! All week he has been running up and giving me hugs, following me instead of his counselors, telling me I am sitting by him at meals (I have a different cabin), and just all around being precious.

Last night was the dance and I saw him by the window and said ‘Let’s dance!’ So we start walking to dance and then he says, “No!” and starts air drumming and said ‘you, too’. So I do, and then I told him that to really be a drummer you have to move one of your feet to play the bass drum so he started doing that too with a HUGE smile on his face. Later he put his glow sticks together to make a ring and we threw it one another. and by that i mean he threw it mostly in my general direction. many times it hit people. but he was smiling and laughing the whole time! a few times he would throw it between us and i would get to it before him. i'd always say 'i win!' so he started telling me to come get it when he was close to it. then he would pick it up and say that! whenever he would throw it though he would motion for me to back up so he could throw it farther.

both camps left today, and it was pretty hard to not keep him here at camp!! haha

790 the Zone Radiothon for CTL

Today is the Radiothon!!!!!! It is happening right now on the gym stage and will be until 7:00 tonight.

What is the Radiothon? It’s to raise money for Camp Twin Lakes and is done by AM 790 the Zone. On the air all day long they will be interviewing campers from all different camps, some staff, campers’ parents, etc, all to give you a better idea of how awesome camp is!! Earlier this morning Mark Richt (coach of the UGA football team) did an interview on the air about his involvement with camp. John Smoltz was on just a while ago as well!

Some other cool things they are doing:

• the College Challenge!- when people call in and donate money they can out it toward their school's total! unfortunately Florida is the current front-runner. but there's still plenty of time!! also.... Auburn is ahead of Alabama. can't have that!
• they have prizes!- people can bid on certain prizes like... a Coach Richt signed football, braves tickets and a signed baseball...

This radiothon is so important for camp! It helps us send kids to camp in improve the facilities. And every cent really counts!! If you have been reading my blogs then you know how much i love camp. it gives kids of all walks of life, disabilities, illnesses, trauma, to have a week to be with other people who understand what's happening. they get a chance to really be kids with medical staff who can deal with anything that goes wrong asap. they don't have to be super careful when playing sports. they get to hang out with other people like them. they're not the only one with access sites for dialysis. it's awesome and i love it. i can't imagine my life without cancer and camp twin lakes in it!

tune in to 790 am to listen, or call 877-479-2267 to donate!

this week...

This week brought two more camps to Rutledge: Independence and Horizon! Independence is for kids with kidney disease and solid organ transplants and Horizon is for kids in foster care. Both camps are absolutely AWESOME!

I am paired with a Horizon cabin of 9-10 year old boys. What’s really cool about this camp is that each camper has their own counselor that they try to bond with that week. My cabin is great and so are their counselors! There is one boy in my cabin who asks to do “the wave” at every meal. “the wave” is a chant that we do where a bunch of people go to one end of the dining hall and say “we’re gonna do the wave, we’re gonna do the wave. We’re gonna do the wave, we’re gonna do the wave. 1-2-1-2-3- woo!” and we try to get the wave going (there and back) across the entire dining hall! on Sunday, one of the counselors in my cabin made coffee. Now the camper paired with him makes him coffee at every meal! It’s cute.

Today is a pretty light day for me, so this morning I hung out with some kids in dialysis! The kids that have dialysis have to be hooked up to these machines that clean out their blood for about 3 hours. So I played uno with this one boy who had quite a bit of attitude, and then I played it with one of the older girls in there. The one boy asked me about silly bands, so I went and got my bag full of them and handed them out to the three campers who were awake (the other 2 sleep through their treatment).

tonight's evening program is wacky olympics. BOTH camps are doing it in two different places, so it's gonna be pretty crazy! but i'm excited. i love camp! both camps bring so much energy and excitement. i just love it!!

tomorrow is the radiothon that raises money for camp twin lakes on 790 the zone! tune in!!

let's make this last forever

I don’t want camp to end this week!!! I don’t want Krazy Legs and Cadi to leave! They are small enough to just stay for the rest of this summer. This week has just been awesome. I love having the camps so small because you get to know all the kids by name!

Yesterday Cadi went camping! They cooked outside (which I ran up to enjoy!) while Rainbow was having a barbecue, so only Camp Krazy Legs was in the dining hall. Then I ran down for the CeeTLes (we still rock by the way) to give CKL their private concert. Those kids are so awesome. A lot of them are in wheelchairs this week, but they still dance plenty!! After dinner I had dimensions with Cadi at ceramics where we got to glaze all the stuff they made Monday. It's fun just talking with the campers! After that I went to CKL pool party! some of the kids asked me to and it just looked like so much fun! plus i never get to the pool. They are such an excited and happy group. One of the girls in that camp that I have gotten the closest to said "It's you!" when she saw me, then whispered, "your drumming is way better than J's" or whoever the drummer in the band was. Kinda made my day. After that I ran back up to camping with a bunch of other CTL staff to have s'mores and sing around the campfire with Cadi! our evenings are pretty full this week!

today i had a movement and dance session with becky for CKL!! it was awesome. her project for her internship had to deal with wheelchair yoga, so we did that, and then i got to do some movement and teach dances that i modified for wheelchairs! woo!

at meals i sit with my Cadi cabin and yesterday (and today) i told them that they should come to my improv session. a bunch did! and when i got there they said "i told you i would come". once again... awesome session. i love improv because it allows the campers to be silly and have fun in a different way than usual.

one of the Cadi girls was supposed to practice with the CeeTLes so she could play guitar with us, but she got sick right before rest hour. :( 2 Krazy Legs campers will be joining us tonight, though! also with the band.... we have been doing lots of switching instruments this week! taking turns on drums, guitar, singing, etc. it's so fun to change it up! AND i got to sing a song with Joanna! (that never happens because she usually plays keyboard and i am on drums) but the keyboard is broken this week.

tonight is the dance for CKL or as melissa made the sign, it's the sigma beta (their fraternity) and the kappa lambda (for the girls!) prom!! it's also Rainbow's carnival, and the talent show for Cadi. another busy night!!

i have had some rainbow camper sessions (really i have had one boys' cabin 3 times), but other than that i have been busy doing stuff with my cabin!

i am loving camp. i never wanna leave. ever. and i don't want the campers to leave either!

happy 4th!!!

Happy Independence Day America!!

today has been quite exciting. went back to the sunflower festival, spent more money, and took pretty pictures this morning! two camps came in today, Camp Cadi, which is for girls who have been sexually abused, and Camp Krazy Legs, which is for kids with spina bifida. both camps are pretty small, and in honor of our independence day some CTL staff people decorated like crazy in patriotic-ness! We also ate dinner outside by the flagpole and had an awesome cookout. and the CeeTLes played outside! and after opening ceremonies we played the game 'America'! (we made it up) haha. and after that we watched fireworks on the big blowup screen by the flagpole while i turned on some patriotic tunes through the radio. and then the kids got sparklers and snack! woo!

some info on the camps this week:
another camp is coming in tomorrow, Camp Rainbow. It's for kids with cancer and rare blood disorders and their siblings out of MCG in augusta.
i've heard that Krazy Legs is a super spirited and excited bunch! a few of our guys on staff are staying in cabins because they did last year and it was so awesome!!
this week i am buddies with a Camp Cadi cabin. and my other CTL buddy is my roommie hannh!! talk about excited!

i'm really looking forward to another week of camp. this week is pretty light, so it will give me an opportunity to hang out with my cabin buddies more. can't wait to get started!!

it's the CeeTLes at the sunflower festival!!

the sunflower festival

yesterday (and today) is the SUNFLOWER FESTIVAL!! this festival is always held over 4th of July weekend in Rutledge, GA. they expected to see 10,000 people this year!

i absolutely love this festival. it's $5 to get in, and it's full of local (and not so local) vendors selling everything from jewelry to window art, games to clothes, and pottery to food. and there's live music. why is it called the sunflower festival? you may ask. because on the property of this festival is a HUGE sunflower field where you can pay $10 and fill a huge vase with them AND you get to cut your own flowers. Some of these sunflowers were taller than me and bigger than my head!

this summer my parents came to enjoy the festival!! we wandered around together looking at all the different vendors (and buying stuff). i got some awesome food mixes, one for salsa, this white mustard sauce, and a creme brulee pie filling. yum. also at the festival every year they have a featured artist! this year it was elizabeth, who does the ceramics activity at camp! it was so cool to see her real stuff and her metalworking.

but what really made the sunflower festival special for me this year is that the CeeTLes were asked to play in the kids section! and Morgan Sheperd joined us on bass!! (he was one of the founding member of the CeeTLes with me two years ago). we did two sets, one at 10 and one at 3. it was definitely a different setting than normal, but it was still fun!! the stage they gave us was long and skinny. luckily jamie's drum set was mini because otherwise it would not have fit up there! all the instruments were on stage and our two singers were standing on hay bales in front. haha. despite some MAJOR technical difficulties in the morning set, my parents really enjoyed it. for the very last song we did 'brown eyed girl' and i got to sing (!), Jamie played drums, and Grace played guitar. it was awesome to change it up like that!! also at our stage we had some friendly faces come see us! one of my old counselors, SIssy, came with her family, one of my friends who was a counselor this year, a former camper, and a counselor from last week all came to check out the festival and see us!

thanks to all of the family members who came out to support us, and also to all the friends from partner groups who came out. it was awesome to see all of you!!

today we have 2 camps coming in. happy 4th of july!!

it's july

so i pretty much never know what the date is but holy crap it's july!!!!

anyways... camp this week is AWESOME! my cabin is absolutely hilarious and adorable and all good things, although i have heard that they are trouble makers.... whatev. i still want to keep all of them! last night was the carnival!! it was a joint one, meaning that both CBE and CTB went to the same one! i spent the first half hour at the game 'booger toss' (lovely name, right?) and then just walked around and hung out with my kids! the carnival had a bunch of games, TWO blow up slide/bounce house like things, AND a group of people who ride motorcycles came to entertain the kids.

the CeeTLes get to play twice a day every day! it's pretty awesome. we're constantly adding new music and stuff, and yesterday we signed autographs. yes, autographs. i have a group of kids that surround me while i play the drums and talk to me the whole time. they ask questions and tell me to play different drums on the set and all sorts of other things. it's pretty cool except when they start to try to play the hi hat while i am playing it. doesn't work that way! haha. every time i see one little boy he asks me when and what we re playing! being a camp musician is awesome. all the kids get so excited when they find out that i'm the drummer AND leading their sessions, or vice versa!

one of my activities, drumming, is at the super awesome tree house!! a lot of times we end the session early so the kids can explore. yesterday i had little boys, so of course they wanted to play, and a little girls' cabin ended their nature walk session so they were there, too! the itty bitties are so cute, and one of the little boys, N, wanted me to go down the slide after him so i did! big mistake!! after the little ones saw me they all wanted me to push their swings! haha. they are quite entertaining. i did get to talk to one girl who was feeling homesick. i tried to tell her about how awesome the rest of the week was going to be! i think we mostly got it sorted out. then N threw a small cup of water on me and i squirted him back with my water bottle! haha good times at the tree house. the tree house is like a playground almost. inside there is a second level with chairs at the top, a trap door to the swings below in the drumming circle, a slide, a cargo net to climb up, three swings, and a tire swing! it's a pretty cool place.

tonight is the dance!! i can't wait. the CBE dance is one of the best all summer!!