Amy Lewis

My name is Amy Lewis. I'm 16 and I've been a Rec volunteer with Interchange since the beginning of the year (2011). I go to Mater Christi and few years ago Interchange did a presentation at my school - that's how I heard about it. There are lots of us from Mater who volunteer at Interchange. In my free time I love playing guitar, swimming, going to the beach, doing any kind of outdoor and out of the ordinary activity.

Volunteering has really opened my eyes to how families live when they have a child with a disability. I have so much respect for the parents and siblings who are so supportive of their child and who work so hard with them. Interchange has also let me see that anyone with a disability can do anything they want to do, that they love everything anyone else does and shouldn’t be treated any differently. That's an important lesson.

I have met some truly amazing people through Interchange who I really hope I will be friends with for a long time. When you go on a camp everyone becomes your family, so you become extremely close with the volunteers, staff and even the participants.

What do I like about being an Interchange Volunteer? There isn’t one thing I don’t like - meeting new participants, the fantastic families, the incredible staff and the lovely volunteers. I love when you are about to go on an activity or camp and find out which amazing kids are coming. I love the memories and funny things the participants say and I even love giving thousands of piggy back rides and cuddles. The imagination of some of the kids is incredible and getting to play along with them is just so much fun. One example is this one young boy I've been on quite a few camps with. He has an incredible imagination. On my first camp with him, he decided we would ‘get married’. We planned our entire house out in the gym at the camp. On another camp we built a big cubby from a massive pile of blankets and hid and pretended the staff couldn’t see us. They played along but would come over and reach into the cubby to try and grab one of us. We were crawling everywhere escaping from their hands and eventually he ended up jumping in my lap so the staff wouldn’t catch him. It was so much fun and he was having a great time.

I never thought Interchange would change my aspirations in life but it certainly has. Working with the children has made me passionate about helping people with a disability. I now want to become an Occupational Therapist as I think it would be a truly rewarding job which I would just love to do. I also intend to continue volunteering with Interchange and working with the kids.

Why do I think other people should volunteer for Interchange? Everyone likes to have fun, likes to smile, everyone LOVES any excuse to act like a kid, and I think everyone loves meeting new people. Interchange is just a truly amazing place and being a part of it is incredible. I don’ t think words can describe how great volunteering is so I guess you’ll just have to give it a go for yourself.

Final Words: Interchange is a truly incredible organisation and it is such an amazing feeling to be a part of it. Seeing how happy the parents are when they come to pick up their child from a camp or activity and how thankful they are for the time off they have had is just the best feeling. If you’re considering signing up to volunteer, definitely do it! You will not regret it!!