I recently returned from volunteering at Camp Dream Street, a week-long sleep away camp for kids ages eight to fourteen. What makes Dream Street so special and different than other camps is that it is specifically a camp for kids with physical disabilities, and is one-hundred percent free of charge for all of the children who attend camp. Because Dream Street is free this means not only do all of the counselors and upper staff volunteer their time, but so do the professional staff which includes an amazing team of Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists, Nurses, and Doctors all who are choosing to use their vacation days from work to give time to this incredible cause. I have spent my past four summers volunteering at Dream Street as a counselor and staff member, and Dream Street is something I look forward to all year. However, it wasn’t until someone asked me this year why I choose to continue helping with Dream Street annually that I realized how complex this question truly was.

To anyone who is unfamiliar with this camp and all of the lives it has impacted, the answer to this question may appear plain and simple. I choose to volunteer because it’s the right thing to do, I am fulfilling an obligation to give back. Or perhaps, after going to summer camp for nine years as a kid, I would want to give someone else the same experience in return. For some people, the answer may even be out of selfish reasons; maybe they view camp as something good to put on their resume, or brag to friends about for all of their good deeds. While I’ve realized I do give back for selfish reasons, it is a different type of selfish. I’ve heard many people at Dream Street say their motivation to return and help every year is not for the campers, but rather for their parents. For many parents this is the one time out of year where they are able to just sit back and relax, or travel, or even spend time with their other children who live in a shadow under their sibling who requires so much care.

Every year, Dream Street has consistently given me both physical and mentally the hardest, most tiring, and most exhausting week of my life, and it is crazy to imagine that what we do for only five days these parents are doing for three-hundred and sixty days. But at the same time, I realized this past week that my motivation to return year after year stems from something that is very difficult to describe using just words. My motivation is seeing kids finally get to be “just kids” for a week, rather than “kids with disabilities”. I look forward to Dream Street all year long with selfish intentions, because I know that all of the hard work and long, tiresome hours are well worth all of the smiling faces I get to see. The main reason I look forward to returning to Dream Street each year is so that I can take part in all of the new experiences right alongside each camper who gets to step out of their comfort zone and challenge themselves. Nothing makes me happier than hearing a camper tell me the story of how cool it was when they rode a horse for the first time at Dream Street, or seeing a child who cannot control their arm movements use adaptive tools from the occupational therapists to cut and make beautiful art. I’m left with an unexplainable sense of joy when I get to see a child with no sensation in their waist-down ride an adaptive bike, or when I see a camper take the first steps (of their life) in the pool. It is all of the amazing opportunities that these kids are given for the first time in their lives that fuels me to come back annually and be a part of the “Dream Street Magic”. I’ve had campers tell me they learned how to tie their shoes, feed themselves, do their hair, put on a bra, sing in the talent show, canoe, climb the tower, and even drive a car- all for the first time at camp. What really inspires me however, is all of the first times that aren’t tangible. This year, on the last day of camp when I heard campers sobbing because it was time to leave, because they had such an amazing week, because they felt understood and that they fit in with their peers, and because they had finally been seen for all of their incredible abilities rather than being judged for their disabilities- that is when I realized that I return out of selfish reasons. This year I realized I choose to give back because each year Dream Street continues to reward me with more in return.