Lake Effects
Each year, thousands of college students across the country flock to popular beaches to relax with pulp fiction, work on their tans and revel in a “traditional” Spring Break experience. But for some, this annual rite of passage is not about parties and exotic locales.
Several students in the University Honors Program and the School of Human Ecology at Georgia Southern have chosen to forgo expectation to help adults facing significant cognitive and developmental challenges instead. For the past four years, these selfless Eagles have spent their own Spring Break volunteering their time for Camp Blue Skies at Camp Twin Lakes in Rutledge, Georgia, where alumnus Dan Mathews (’96) is the director. Camp Twin Lakes is a network of camps for children and families with serious illnesses and disabilities, and collaborates with Camp Blue Skies, an organization founded by Richard Sesler to provide campers age 21 or older with recreation and socialization opportunities.
Rising senior Amanda Bastien has been a volunteer at the camp for the three years since she enrolled at Georgia Southern and said the weeklong immersive experience is a blast. “I love helping others and I love volunteering,” said Bastien. “Initially, I wanted to go because I had never worked with people with disabilities and I wanted the experience to help for a future career in physical therapy. Now I go back every year because it feels like home and I have made many friends who expect to see me there… I love returning to this place.”
The trip is coordinated through the Honors Program and is one of at least 25 Alternative Break programs offered by Georgia Southern University each year. They are public service-oriented trips intended to provide students with the opportunity to make a difference in the world. Most of the University’s Alternative Break trips are scheduled during the week of spring break, but others are offered during the winter and summer breaks as well.
Child and Family Development Professor Jerri Kropp, Ph.D., and Recreation and Tourism Management Professor Brent Wolfe, Ph.D., are the two faculty members who spearhead the trip to Camp Twin Lakes and see how the students gain a completely different perspective on life.
“They see these adults challenging themselves and growing and our students begin to look at their own lives and feel the need to challenge themselves and grow personally,” Wolfe said. “Working with these students who not only give up their spring break, but pay money to do so shows me that we have students who are amazingly unselfish. Seeing the students willingly participate in this trip and want to come back year after year restores my faith in college students and their priorities.”
“When we embarked on this journey four years ago, I had no idea where this would lead,” added Kropp. “Now that we have done the trip four times, we have built solid relationships with Camp Blue Skies and Camp Twin Lakes. Seeing what college students experience is what keeps me coming back. Some of the students have written in their journals that the experience has changed their lives. They put their hearts and souls into this week.”
Francis Desiderio, Ph.D., associate director of the University Honors Program, said he expects the partnership with Camp Twin Lakes/Camp Blue Skies to last for many years. In addition to helping the campers, students are able to apply what they learn in the classroom to real-world situations in this service-learning project. “All participants attend three pre-camp training sessions, including one on-site overnight session,” explained Desiderio. “They also attend two post-camp debriefing sessions. These mandatory sessions help students contextualize and understand the experience going into camp and give them a chance to reflect as a group on the experiences they had.”
Director and alumnus Dan Mathews has a degree in therapeutic recreation and has worked at Camp Twin Lakes full-time since 2000, and said he is in awe of the Georgia Southern student volunteers. “Their devotion and enthusiasm are infectious,” said Mathews. “Each one comes with a solid foundation of knowledge and skill and are open to a challenging experience where they are putting others’ needs first. It is incredible to be a small part of their education and see them develop into leaders in their chosen fields.”
Recent Georgia Southern graduate Caroline Greene called her experience at Camp Twin Lakes indescribable. “People regularly say, ‘I don’t know how you do it,’ and my response is ‘I don’t know how you don’t do it.’ The campers I have met have impacted my life drastically and helped to shape me into the young adult I have become,” Greene said.
The students lead campers in a variety of activities that include arts and crafts, singing and dancing and even zip-lining, a tree-based aerial course. Safely clipped in harnesses, participants glide from platform to platform by way of free-moving pulleys suspended on cables high above the ground. The course design allows gravity to propel people from one place to another. “One camper was terrified to go down the zipline,” said Greene. “She cried and confessed her fear of heights.” Greene offered all the support and encouragement she could but admits she was scared of heights herself. “She (the camper) finally asked if she did it, would I go. Thinking she never would, she courageously climbed to the top of the tower and pointed down at me saying, ‘It’s your turn Caroline!’ That day I overcame my fear of heights and stepped out of my comfort zone because of that camper. I will never forget that moment.”
Overcoming fears. Helping others feel wanted and welcome. Every year, students like Greene continue to demonstrate why a growing number of Georgia Southern’s young men and women are choosing a “nontraditional” Spring Break – something that lasts longer than a forgotten party or fading tan. After all, personal education doesn’t have to take a break, at least not the Spring Break we’ve all become accustomed to. – Sandra Bennett