For many young people, attending or working at summer camp is a ritual they look forward to each year. Camps thrive off the energy and creativity of counselors who devote their postsecondary summers to jobs that teach real-world skills in offices with no walls. Camps exist to provide unique summertime experiences to campers eager for a break from the norm (and their parents).
A pipeline of returning happy campers and trained counselors helps ensure a camp’s survival. But what happens when that pipeline dries up?
It did at Camp Hawkins.
For two years, the Mt. Airy, Georgia-based camp for children and youth with special needs sat empty and idle, shut down by COVID. It reopened this year, but much work had to be done before it could. Teams of volunteers from area churches cleaned and repaired the facilities. Staff members trained first-time counselors to cope with the physical and emotional demands of the job. It was a mammoth effort to repair, retrain, rebuild, and re-engage with the community.
Back in business
Camp Hawkins is a program run by Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries. Mt. Airy is one of two locations in the state where the camp operates; the other is in South Georgia’s Baxley. Before the pandemic, both camps welcomed hundreds of campers and workers from all over the state every year. However, according to Carol McCarty, Executive Administrator Emeritus, the two-year break decimated the staff of college students who served as counselors.
“While we’ve been closed for two summers, we’ve actually been down for almost three years,” she explains, “because we spend so much time in the administration work of planning each camp. During that time, our former summer staff members graduated. We’ve had to start over.”
That loss of experienced college staffers meant that Camp Hawkins had to rebuild.
“This year, we started out with a few churches and a few kids over just two weeks of camp in order to get the kinks worked out,” says McCarty. “Plus, we had to go through training with all our counselors.”
Fun focused
Camp Hawkins accepts campers ages 8 to 21. The maximum number of campers during one 5-day camp week is 20. That’s because Camp Hawkins serves campers with severe special needs such as ADHD, autism, cerebral palsy, developmental delays, Down syndrome, learning disorders, and traumatic brain injuries.
Based on the level of care needed, each camper has at least one counselor assigned to them. That counselor spends every moment with the camper. In some cases, more than one counselor can be assigned to a camper who needs more attention. Interestingly, for the second week of Camp Hawkins (which just ended), many of the counselors were student nurses from North Georgia Technical College who experienced firsthand the role of being a full-time caregiver to young people with special needs.
The camp offers a wide range of activities adapted to meet the needs and abilities of each camper, including watersports, arts and crafts, Bible Study, and “messy games.” The focus is on fun in a highly alert environment where special needs are tended to but are not the center of attention.
Celebrating life
At Camp Hawkins, the fun culminates with an end-of-camp talent show. All campers are encouraged to participate, and on stage, they shine. They share their unique gifts, talents, and, sometimes, pure zany antics. During the last talent show this summer, a couple of campers sang, and two others shot basketball hoops. One camper challenged staff members in arm wrestling, and another read cookbooks. There was also a camper ‘doctor’ making diagnoses of ‘sick’ counselors who all seemed to have strep throat. One camper raced another around the gym in his motorized wheelchair. Many of them danced. They all received a loud, raucous reception.
The talent show is open to family and community members who come to encourage the performing campers as part of the “Clapping Ministry.” The result is an extremely noisy and rowdy experience that is not to be missed.
On this particular evening, there were 19 campers and 23 counselors, indicating how severely handicapped several campers were. Watching the counselors interact with the campers was inspiring. They kept their eyes on the campers’ faces and worked hard to help them express their emotions. Sometimes the campers responded; other times, not. Still, the counselors kept trying. The relationships that had developed in only five days were evident and remarkable.
At the end of the talent show, the campers and counselors sang the classic tune Lean on Me. It’s a song that embodies the spirit of Camp Hawkins and those who support and believe in its mission.
About Camp Hawkins
The Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries accepts applications for Camp Hawkins in early spring. For more information, visit https://www.georgiachildren.org/camp-hawkins.
