My Service Learning Experience at Camp High Hopes

Camp High Hopes

My service learning experience took place at Camp High Hopes (CHH) in Sioux City, Iowa. I have been volunteering from October to December of 2015. I assisted in helping individuals with disabilities in swimming, helping in learning the rules while in a moving vehicle, and doing fun activities. While I was volunteering I learned many new things about myself and about individuals with disabilities. I have also learned to appreciate individuals with disabilities a lot more. The first day I was at CHI I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The first person I interacted with was a male in his eighties who had an intellectual disability. He greeted me right away and began to have a conversation. He loves to talk and always has something to say. He reminded me of a grandfather. The first couple of thoughts that came to my mind when I interacted with him was “I don’t want him to do anything that might hurt him.

” I felt like I needed to do everything for him because he was an elder.

I had worked in a nursing home before and I thought he wouldn’t be able to do things like the other campers were doing such as, coloring a large piece of paper without having his hands hurt. Throughout the couple of hours I learned that he enjoyed doing everything on his own. If he needed help he would ask with manners. I really enjoyed the first experience I had with someone who was an elder and had disabilities.

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I had never worked with a individual that was older than twenty who had disabilities. Another experience that I had was on a day that we were heading on our way to go swimming. Everyone usually walks to the van and volunteers and support staff help buckle them in, if needed. One time there was a girl who was about six years old and she wanted to buckle everyone’s seat belt and inform them what the seat belts were for. She went into a lot of detail about if you don’t wear one you could get hurt really bad or even die. It surprised me that she knew so much and used a lot of big words such as, morgue, clavicle, and traumatic brain injury. This girl had a intellectual and developmental disability. I learned that even when individuals have an intellectual disability they can still be smart. One of the main things I did at CHH was swimming.

I helped individuals get their jacket on, hats, and gloves, as well as grab their swim bag. I think the day I learned the most out of was when there was four girls who were physically handicap and in wheelchairs. These girls were all around the ages of ten and twelve. None of them had anything wrong in their brain. When we arrived at the pool, they all individually went into a changing room and changed themselves. The most they needed help with was tying their bathing suit. They all got in and out of their chair by themselves. We all then went to get into the pool. Each and every one of them hoisted themselves up with their arms and scooched themselves into the water. I was taken by surprise at how they did this all by themselves. All four of them could swim and play games in the water as if they didn’t have physical disabilities. It was so much fun and I still can’t find a word for the feeling I had that day. I am still amazed at how four girls had such fun personalities and had physical disabilities, but that didn’t keep them from doing things they wanted or doing things on their I also came upon a male adult with severe autism. He used sign language to communicate.

Throughout the evening I noticed he hit himself at least every ten minutes. What I also noticed was that when he did hit himself it was because no one appeared to be paying attention to him or he would try and ask something to a support staff and when they answered him, he would resort to hitting himself and screaming. I realized that he got upset because he probably could not get the right answer he was hoping for or maybe he couldn’t communicate directly what he wanted. I decided to communicate with him more during the activity that we were currently doing, which was coloring a coffee filter. I thought about picking out a marker for him but instead I grabbed the bucket and asked him to chose a color. He smiled and grabbed three markers.

I realized that the simple small things made him happy which made me happy as well. A huge experience that I had at CHH that I will not forget ever, was when a boy, around the age of eight, got upset because the pet rabbit would not pay attention to him and go on his side of the table. He started asking, “Why doesn’t the rabbit come here? I want to pet him too.” One of the staff answered him with, “Don’t worry, just wait your turn.” He began to scream and get up from his chair and run around. Staff went to go try and calm him down and instead he laid on the ground and began to hit himself. I was with another staff and we made sure the other campers were safe and out of harm’s way. The two staff that was trying to calm down the boy were talking to him and giving him options. He was offered if he wanted to pet the rabbit. He said, “Yes.” They asked him to go sit at the table again and they would bring the rabbit to him if he would be nice to the rabbit. Indeed, he did calm down and was a lot of fun the rest of the evening. He was very polite and talked a lot. I am glad I watched this experience and learned from others during the situation.

A couple of skills that I gained while volunteering at CHH was patience, comprehension, and a whole lot of respect for individuals with disabilities. Although I already had patience, I feel like I have even more patience now because of a couple of kids that I helped out with. Those kids had difficulty communicating with staff and volunteers. I was patient in listening to them trying to ask or get out what they wanted to say, which did take awhile. With that I learned comprehension as well. Although, not only did I take it by learning to understand people with disabilities verbally but overall. I now understand why people with disabilities chose to do a lot of things on there own. For example a kid with severe autism may not be able to communicate at all verbally but instead communicate through sign language. Since a kid can not verbally speak he may enjoy the little things such as being the first person to pick out a game board or a fun activity. The last and most important skill that I think I learned at CHH was respect.

I learned to respect people with disabilities a lot more than people without disabilities. I feel as many people take things for granted and those with disabilities try and see the good side or always have a smile on their face. Even though, their days can be difficult and may always need someone to help them on their activities of daily living. It makes me now see things differently and try to find the good in even the bad things. I truly do have the upmost respect for individuals who have disabilities. I am very glad that I had the opportunity to volunteer at CHH because if I didn’t I don’t think I would have a different mindset on things or see things the way I do now. I am glad I got to help individuals with rules, activities, and swimming. I feel as if I will take this learning experience with me throughout the rest of my years and college and even further.