At Camp PALS, peers foster new friendships and experience exciting and enriching times together. Half of these peers just happen to have Down Syndrome.

While the camps are focused on enhancing the Summers of the individuals with Down Syndrome, these individuals are not the only ones who take away new lessons, experiences, and an abundance of memories from an unforgettable week. I volunteered for 8 days with Camp PALS New Jersey and I will never be able to recreate nor replace the incredible experience I had.

One of the most eye-opening aspects of my week at Camp PALS was the fact that every individual at camp was so similar. Though all of the campers have an extra copy of the 21st chromosome and the volunteers do not all of us shared the common goal of spreading joy and gaining new experiences in this best week of the summer.

I learned so much from our campers. We went on trips to the beach, Six Flags Great Adventure, a small town in beautiful Pennsylvania, and stayed on the campus of The College of New Jersey. We participated in relays of the Olympics, swam in the pool, sang at karaoke night, and all the while I was absorbing all of the wisdom every individual brought to camp. We all come from different backgrounds, with campers and volunteers attending camp from all over the country, and we all had different personalities to blend. That being said, I was able to learn a lot just through observation alone.

I learned about how one camper had manners of the South, discovering that he came to CPNJ from Alabama. I learned that most all of our campers loved to dance, and then I learned how infectious dancing was when we had dance parties almost every ten minutes at camp. I learned how easy it was to spread joy and to make people smile. People feed off of each other’s energy, so radiating positive energy is always the way to go.

I learned to develop genuine relationships at PALS. During late night meetings, I got the chance to talk to my fellow volunteers about their favorite school subjects and their best friends from home. We laughed and we made friendship bracelets and took pictures to develop and hang on our walls in our respective dorm rooms and bedrooms. We got to know what raw exhaustion was and what that brought out of each other, mostly a feeling of comradery, but definitely also a lot of laughter.

We learned to appreciate small victories. Seeing a camper smile when they hadn’t once that day was a huge success that may not sound like it to an outside perspective, but seeing that progression throughout a day is reassuring. We are spreading joy to individuals our age who often do not get to experience the same joy we do. But together, we experienced joy.

I learned to ask questions and to stay curious about other people’s lives. We all have so many experiences to share with the people we encounter, and too often we stay quiet.

What really hit home for me was when we were sitting in the closing ceremonies at the end of the week and the parents of the campers had the floor to give their testimonies to PALS, the volunteers, and their children. These parents expressed their most sincere thanks to us volunteers for providing them with enough reassurement and planning that they trusted us to leave their children with. This camp gave their children a chance to gain self-confidence, new friendships, new life skills, or to brush up and enhance on all of the above.

One parent’s testimony particularly resonated with me, as she told the crowd that she had hope for the future, because even through the heartache around the world the last few weeks, there were close to sixty people who put their school, careers, internships, and personal lives on hold for a week to spread joy to their children with Down Syndrome. Her heartfelt and emotional testimony had tears streaming down my cheeks, as well as the cheeks of many other volunteers sitting around me. In this moment, I realized how great of an impact I had the ability to make. These mothers and fathers told us that we make an impact this week, one that has their children counting down the days until next summer when they can attend Camp PALS again.

I left Camp PALS a changed person. I know I made an impact on the campers I was so fortunate to interact with throughout the week. I got to see their faces light up as we jumped up and down at the semi-formal end-of-week dance, and I got to see their smiles brighten and hear their incredible laughter on the sand of Ocean City, New Jersey. I know that I, along with all the other volunteers I worked alongside, spread joy to young adults with Down Syndrome who don’t always get to have these experiences with their peers.

But the most lasting lessons I think I learned in my week at Camp PALS was to believe in yourself and to respect and love the people around you. The campers had opportunities to speak in front of the group throughout the week and these two lessons were common themes in many campers’ speeches. You have to believe that you are worth it and that you are meant to be yourself and to shine as yourself, however, that may be. It’s also important to realize that everyone has similar qualities but, in the words of High School Musical’s classic jam “We’re All In This Together, “we’re not the same, we’re different in a good way”. Realizing the unique character of each individual you interact with will enrich your life in the best possible way.

My week with Camp PALS is something I could ever describe in just a few words, but it is absolutely an experience that has changed me. Acceptance is a beautiful thing. Sending PALS love and respect to every person out there.