Well, I’m not going, actually, but my daughter is, and I’m going with her.

In addition to creating a non-profit organization to award college scholarships to students with Tourette’s Syndrome, our family non-profit will have a secondary focus. Somewhere down the road, we plan to contribute funds to send a kid to summer camp. Let me explain.

When searching the web for info on Tourette’s organizations, I ran across a camp for kids ages 7 to 17 that have Tourette’s Syndrome. It is called Camp Twitch and Shout, and it meets for one week every summer outside Atlanta, GA in a town called Winder. Check it out – here is the website:  http://camptwitchandshout.org/

My daughter and I decided that it would be great if one day as part of our organization, we could also sponsor some children to the camp by donating some admission funding. But we decided to become more familiar with the camp first. And what better way than for my daughter Kelsey to be a camp counselor!

This winter she applied online. I gather that the camp had close to 300 applications for counselors – many of whom return year after year. Kelsey has 5 years of experience as a summer camp counselor that she gained during her high school years. The fact that she has just graduated with a degree in Elementary Education also positioned her well. Recently she got the note – she’s been accepted!

We’ve decided to drive from South Florida to Winder over a couple of days. She has to be there on July 12 and the camp ends July 18. I’ll be staying with family during the week, while she eats, sleeps and stays at the camp.

This is entirely a volunteer effort. She is not being paid for this gig. Our transportation costs are all our own, and it’s on our own time. But we are both very excited. And I’m extremely proud of her for wanting to help children like herself. Camp Twitch and Shout is a place where children with Tourette’s Syndrome can feel at home for a week, where people understand. Many of the campers return year after year.

I’ll be able to report more about it after we go. By Kelsey participating as a counselor, we’ll be more in tune with the needs of the camp and how our goals of future contributions might fit in. We’ve made our plans, and she is communicating in a Facebook group to get to know some of her fellow counselors prior to camp. One of them told her – be ready for your life to be changed, and be prepared to come back – every year.