Family Camp Volunteer

Family Camp Volunteer

By Kevin Smyth – Recreation Volunteer
12th March 2010

I’ve been volunteering for close to two years, mostly on day activities and weekend camps. Whilst I have had a lot of memorable and happy moments, afterwards I’d go back to my “own life”, still searching to belong or to feel part of something.

 
It took a family camp over the Labour Day weekend, to understand what I had joined in those two years - a community.
 
Where:
•      Sleepless summer nights spent by  teenage volunteers playing Space Jump or Mafia forged lifelong friendships     
•      Families, at the drop of a hat, would have 4 or 5 other parents willing to help if they needed a coffee or just a  break.      
•      Kids do what kids do best, having fun, with the family and  people who care for them as if they were their own. 

When you see these things, its easy to understand what brings people together for an event like family camp, and what has kept bringing them back for the past 19 years.

I’m grateful for having gone on Interchange Outer East family camp and for being able to learn what most  people who might read this have known for many years - the power of a community and happiness which come from being part of one.