A Life-changing Week

Anna Costantini, a junior at St. Agnes Academy, volunteers at Camp Spike ‘n’ Wave, a camp for children with epilepsy.

The first thing people ask when they hear that I volunteer as a counselor at Camp Spike ‘n’ Wave, a camp hosted at Camp For All for children with epilepsy, is simple: Is it scary? Many times I have found myself puzzled at this question. When a child has epilepsy, a seizure disorder, assuming the role of caretaker is intimidating. However, when I reflect on camp, “scary” doesn’t make the list of the top five adjectives I would use to describe it.

It wouldn’t be truthful to say that the first few seizures I encountered didn’t make my heart race. Despite seizure first-aid training, a fear that a camper will seize keeps me on my toes. Experiencing this unease opened my eyes to the lives of parents of epileptic children. I’m sure they understandably feel the need to supervise their child every moment. This led me to realize the effect of epilepsy on kids.

While epilepsy might not limit a child’s physical abilities, it substantially affects each child’s life. When they’re not at camp, they don’t feel like other kids. They can’t run or play without parents trailing them. But at camp, kids feel free to be kids. Camp For All provides the campers with a week of unforgettable experiences – zip-lining, horseback riding, canoeing and other activities that make the week special.

There is nothing like the excitement shining in campers’ eyes as they listen intently to the activities planned for the day. And nothing is more gratifying than the innumerable amount of times I have heard a camper say that camp is the best week of his or her life.

So is camp scary? No. Camp is fun, life-changing, exciting and exhausting, but not scary. Because while the fear of a seizure might seem overwhelming at first, it is overshadowed by the excitement brought by each day. And of course the first-aid training and available medical staff help, too.

Editor’s Note: Anna will be a correspondent for our School Buzz blog. Look for her reports there.

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