CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Summertime fun is often synonymous with trips to summer camp!
However, attending summer camps can be difficult for children with specific medical needs or disabilities. Thankfully, there are groups and organizations who want to ensure that it's still possible.
Nursing students from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi recently took a road trip to the Texas Hill Country to help make a group of campers' summer even more memorable, while also getting to walk away with lessons not always taught in the classroom.
Tucked in between Kerrville and Comfort, is a hidden oasis of fun: Camp CAMP.
Since 1979, Camp CAMP (which stands for Children's Association for Maximum Potential) has been serving campers from 5 to 55 years old with physical and medical disabilities, and helps them get to experience everything a summer camp has to offer. Not only is it for the camper, but for their families as well.
Since 2011, Corpus Christi has had a unique tie-in to the hill country camp. Every summer since then, nursing students from TAMU-CC make the trip to volunteer at the camp to get clinical hours toward their course work.
The students are responsible for helping the campers fulfill all medical needs and making sure they're taking the right medication. Beyond that, they also are able to be part of the campers' day-to-day activities and give their families a chance to take a break and enjoy seeing their children thrive at summer camp.
Johanna "Dee" Evans is the head nurse of CAMP Camp, as well as the clinical assistant professor for the College of Nursing at TAMU-CC, and said it's incredible to see what the students are able to gain from the experience.
"It's not about the medical piece -- yes, we’re here to offer medical care with the medicines and procedures that need to be done, but that is not the focus," Evans said. "The focus is the campers having a good time and just a normal camp experience. Every one of us wants to have friends, be accepted, have a great time and just have fun."
Evans has personal connection to the camp. She has a son with a disability, and discovered what all the camp had to offer back in 2005. She's felt called to volunteer each year, and began bringing her students so they too could see the impact they can have on these campers, beyond receiving those clinical hours.
"Some of them [campers] may never get to swim or don't get to canoe and this is their one time a year they can do all those fun things," she said.
Now back on their campus, the fifth-semester nursing students who went on the trip and who are now about to graduate, are putting what they learned at camp into practice, but with a fresh, new perspective.
"I actually had no knowledge that Camp CAMP existed before Professor Evans came and spoke to us about it," student Paris Acevedo said. "Seeing them [campers] there so happy, so joyful, it really filled my heart to watch them because the camp wasn’t just there for them to receive their medication, it was for them to enjoy! We were kind of like in the background of it - they were there to have fun at camp and we just made sure that they enjoyed camp."
"It was life-changing, it was very eye-opening for me," student Juliane Mabilangan said. "Being able to help not only the campers, but their families and caregivers as well. Everyone deserves to have fun, no matter the circumstances."
For Coastal Bend native, Ethan Longoria, his experience at TAMU-CC, combined with that of Camp CAMP has him called to stay local after graduation and work at Driscoll Children's Hospital.
"I want to stay local, I want to give back to this community that’s been very kind to me," Longoria said. "It really opened my eyes, and definitely we just need to treat people like people and love each other."
To learn more about Camp CAMP and what it has to offer your child, or to you as a volunteer, click here to learn more.