Camp Angel Summer 2011

It's summer!

Once again, Angel On My Shoulder (http://angelonmyshoulder.org/) put on its summer camp for kids experiencing cancer through a loved one. Who comes to these camps? Boys and girls, ages 8 through 12. This year, we had 45 camper and 11 counselors. What's so special about these kids? Well, just for samplers, one has a brother with an inoperable brain tumor, 3 of them a mom with lung and brain cancer, 4 more have moms with cancer, several have brothers and sisters with leukemia and a pair had their mom die from cancer just within the last week. Kids deal with these tragedies in different ways. Often the illness casts a deep and dark shadow over their childhood. Here at camp, they can be kids again. The camp was held, as it is most every year, at Camp Luther (http://www.campluther.com/). This is in northern wisconsin just north of Rhinelander and Three Lakes. 

I arrived late this year. Clinic was VERY busy and I only got in to camp at about 9:30 pm at night. Camp was rather uneventful from a medical standpoint (the way I like it). I treated some cases of heat exhaustion, abdominal pain and one little girl with whom the dialog went something like this:

"Hi! I'm Dr. Vijay. What's wrong?"

"My tummy hurts and (sniff), I'm homesick!"

On Friday evening when the campers arrive, we have icebreakers (to get everyone to know everyone else). They then report to their camps -- rustic camp sites constructed and named 'The Tower', 'Fort', 'The Ark' and 'Treehouse'. The Camp Luther's website (link above) has pictures of these camp sites.

Once settled in, the campers came back down to the main center for dinner. After dinner, there was a special visit from the Northern Harley Club. These bikers give their time to visit the camp and let the kids oogle and pose on their shiny Harley Davidson motorcycles. Campers went on a scavenger hunt after that, and then headed back to camp for the night.

The next morning before breakfast, campers were out on the court playing 4 Squares and shooting hoops. I learnt to play four squares last year. There is a square divided into four with a player in each sector. The goal of the game is to bounce your ball into another square. There are by-laws like 'chicken feet' and 'black magic' to modify the rules of the game.


4-Squares - black magic and chicken feet

I learnt a new game this year: Ninja. Players stand in a circle and after bowing to each other,

Ninja -- yyyyyaaaah!

strike a Ninja pose. Then each person is sequent has a turn. The player tries to touch another player on the hand or wrist. If they succeed, that player is out. Of course, that player can move their hands out of the way. It is great fun to play and to watch. Here are some pictures.

After breakfast, we headed out to Eagle River for a ride on a Pirate Ship (http://eagleriverpivates.com/). This year, before getting on board, Captain Steve's daughter, gave us all a class on hoola hoop dancing. The kids loved it.

Captain Steve's daughter teaches the Hoola

Can you do the hoola hoop?

We saw the ship come in

Pirates returning from a trip

and climbed aboard for a fun ride on the channel. Our ship was piloted by Captain Steve and his first mate, Steve-O.

Captain Steve and Steve-O steering the ship. Aarrhhh!

While on board, we ate popcorn, drew on white t-shirts which we got to take home,

Drawing on the T-shirts

and saw cool things like this eagle's nest (check out the eagle sitting above it),

Eagle Nest -- can you see the eagle sitting on the branch above?

a giant red chair on the shore near someone's house,

The Giant Red Chair

and a duck and her duckings in a row.

A duck and her ducklings. Ahoy, mateys!

There was swashbuckling sword duels with bubble swords (see picture)

(Bubble) sword play with the Captain

and listened to Pirate songs (like "My name is Roger the Pirate and my favorite letter is R(arrrrrhhh!").

We came back to camp to a barbecue cook out, then spent time in the water, tubing, swimming and doing crafts.

Tubing behind a jet ski. Hold on tight!

Some kids went fishing and I hear, we caught 20-odd bluegill and other fish. Some were as big as my arm (okay, not really). As I do every year, I got my painted rock. This year, I chose a penguin. No, I did not paint it myself. (see picture).

After cleaning up. in the evening, we had dinner and DJ Dan brought out his music system. We had fun dancing

Dance Revolution

, doing the Tonga and seeing how low we could go under the bar (of course, some of the little kids could just walk underneath with no bending needed (see the picture).

How low can you go?

Sunday morning, after more games of Ninja

A final game of Ninjas -- the Masters at work

and 4 squares, campers boarded the bus to go back home.

Time to go back

It was fun. Campers could forget the seriousness, tragedy and pain of home for a while and just be kids. Volunteers (counselors, cooks, fisherman, helpers, doctor, face painters, jet ski-ers) all came and helped out.

We'll be back in Winter for another camp.

See you at camp in winter 2012!