In the spring, a few RAD employees visited Rosary and provided insight on the RAD program for inquiring students. RAD, which stands for Rising Above Disabilities, would offer two separate summer camps, RAD Camp and RAD Mini/Jr. According to RadCamp.org, RAD provides overnight camps where “Each camper is paired one-to-one with a dedicated counselor who has been thoroughly background checked, completed our full training program and is overseen by team leaders who have been with RAD for 3 years or more.”

I was immediately intrigued in volunteering for RAD Mini/Jr., as I have always had an interest in childhood special education. After a long application and interviewing process, I was overjoyed to have been accepted as a volunteer!

On the first day of camp, we welcomed our campers with a human tunnel. My team leader gave everyone body glitter and pom-poms as we formed a tunnel and cheered while our campers arrived and ran through. It was an exciting start to an amazing week. We then checked our campers and brought their luggage to our rooms. We stood in the Vanguard University dorm rooms and bunked with another volunteer-camper pair, which was a cool sneak peek of college dorm rooms. 

As a counselor, we were paired one-on-one (and in some cases, two-on-one)with a camper. This meant that for each camp, one counselor was responsible for everything from ensuring their camper received their medication at breakfast to tucking them into bed at night. 

Brynn Beauchamp ’23 became familiar with serving as a round-the-clock caregiver: “The middle of the night was super hard at first for my Co-Counselor and I. This was only because our buddy had different ways of coping with being away from Mom and home that became increasingly difficult at night. She would wake up and start screeching which, as you could imagine, was super alarming at first, so we would ask her to settle down and it would work for a while. Then she would start it all again, so we tried to ride it out and see what happened. It got louder so I decided to try rubbing her back to get her to sleep, and that ultimately worked like magic. This helped me and my buddy build a super unique bond to where she trusted me to get her to sleep at night!”

A lot of our buddies seemed to have endless amounts of energy. In complete honesty, the coffee table was my best friend. I visited that table a countless amount of times over the course of five days. On day four, the stand was out-of-order and the effects of minimal sleep began to become evident—but luckily, our awesome team leaders got it up and running again quickly. 

Though constantly sleep deprived, I was overjoyed to be there. Every morning, I rolled out of bed excited to wake up my camper and her roommate with the “Encanto” soundtrack, which was a crowd favorite at camp. I have officially memorized all six parts of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.” My camper quite literally jumped out of bed to sing every single morning (on zero cups of coffee, at that!)

My favorite memory from camp was the talent show, a camp tradition. The talent show is a chance for every camper to get up on stage and perform whatever their heart desires. There was everything from stand-up comedy to clogging. That’s right, our roommate performed a clogging routine and it was awesome.

I worked all week to convince my camper to perform in the talent show and on our final night, she finally decided to sing “Firework” by Katy Perry with me. This was my favorite moment from the entire camp because the connection I had been working to create with my camper pushed her to step outside of her comfort zone. I was thrilled that I could help her grow and also experience something new in the few days we had together. If the entire week wasn’t already a blast, this night would have made it all worth it. Luckily, with RAD Camp, you can have your cake and eat it too.

Cadiz Salazar ‘23 says, “My favorite thing about camp was that although my camper had a couple of medical issues that were scary at times, the moments that we made him laugh or made him smile became the highlights of our days. Plus, he rocked the Buzz Lightyear costume that he wore.”

I would highly recommend applying to be a volunteer counselor for RAD Camp this coming summer. Even if you have the slightest inclination to apply, reach out to an adult through the RAD website to ask any questions. Personally, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. I will definitely be applying again and can not wait to have another amazing life-changing week this summer. I hope to see you there!