GOSHEN, Vt. (AP) – The location has changed, but the philosophy of Camp Daybreak hasn’t.
The scene I witnessed in the Goshen countryside last week took me back more than 30 years, to the three summers when I worked as a volunteer big brother at Camp Daybreak, then held on the grounds of Camp Holy Cross, on the shores of Malletts Bay in Colchester.
Watching big brothers and sisters painting alongside the kids, or casting a fishing line, or pushing them on the swings reminded me of one of the most formative things I’ve done in my life.
The first year I went, 1974, I had just finished my junior year in high school. I was completely unprepared for the glimpse into a world I didn’t know existed.
I don’t know if it was a blessing or a curse, but for that two-week session (now the sessions are one week) I was big brother to one of the most difficult children at camp. He was a 10-year-old boy whose father was dead and whose mother was an alcoholic. He lived in a foster home.
At first, he was uncooperative and reclusive. He slept in an upright fetal position at night, rocking back and forth all night. The only way he’d go to the dining hall to eat was if I carried him piggyback.
I’d never dealt with such frustration. At the same time, I was drawn to the experience, so much so that I went back for two more summers.
Camp Daybreak made enough of an impression on me that I used the experience as the basis for my essay when I applied to Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine.
In it, I wrote how, after two weeks, my young friend still rocked in his sleep, but that he’d run ahead of everyone to meals and cheerfully do errands for people at our mealtime table.
When he went home after two weeks, he had a smile on his face.
Talking to the staff last week, I knew just what they meant when they talked about how satisfying it was to work so intensely with kids who needed a friend.
AP-ES-08-19-07 1635EDT
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