MDA Camp

For the past two years I have volunteered one week of my "valuable" time so that a kid with one of forty two types of Muscular Dystrophy could have a stellar week at MDA Camp. Each camper has his or her own counselor to take care of them. Sometimes you get paired with awesome kids, some times your the pairing doesn't quite result in a stellar time, just a good one. Last year I had a good time, but my camper and I just didn't mesh as well as I would have liked. I think he would have rather been with the older guys instead of being stuck as the oldest guy in the next youngest group. He wanted to spend most of his time with the 13-15 year olds, and most of the time he could but some times he just couldn't because of the camp rules. Over all last year was kind of a wash for me, and even though I think my camper had a good time I think it was a partial wash for him too. Because of my experience last year I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to camp this year, thinking that I might just want to take a break to focus on finding a job. After a while I decided would actually be really good for me to go to camp. Firstly I would get out of this house and be able to de-stress some, something I sorely need. Also some of the older people at camp really like me and would probably help me find a job, or give me direction if I asked them about it. This year was going to be different, I had a new camper assigned to me, someone who hasn't been to camp very often, so I was advised to call the kids parents and reassure them that everything would be fine. I say this year was going to be different because camp has been canceled this year. Ironical camp has been canceled by the same swine flu which until this point has been a running joke to me. Swine Flu really isn't a threat to anyone with common sense or good health habits. If you get sick go to the doctor, and you should be fine. Then I found out that at the MDA camp in PA, 11 campers got sick with Swine Flu. I can understand why they decided not to hold the DC area camp this year because they don't want to risk it. But it still is a nasty pill to swallow, because I was hoping for a positive way to remove some of this stress, and possibly expand my job horizons but It looks like I'll have to find something else. There is always next year.

Lauren: You seem really interested in MD and MDA camp, perhaps you could become a counselor too next year. It's not hard, and I know you would be a wonderful counselor for a camper. Plus you could perhaps write a freelance story about your experiences, or something.