Paint or Be Painted

This past weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a killer service project and Camp Twin Lakes. Camp Twin Lakes is a wonderful non-profit organization that provides kids who suffer from a vast array of illnesses/disabilities with the opportunity to "be normal." We're talking about children with real, scary, sometimes terminal illnesses who would otherwise never have the opportunity to conquer a high-ropes course, rock climb, zip-line, canoe or even swim. A group of around 100 of us rambunctious 20-somethings designated our weekend to partaking in contributing our blood, sweat and tears into adding to Camp Twin Lakes. My job was of the less bloody, sweaty and teary....I was deemed as the Official-Documenter-of-Events for Saturday.....

So...ladies and germs [as my father would say].... .let's take an abbreviated walk through my weekend as the all-seeing-not-really-all-knowing eyes/shutter....

There were multiple "artistic" assignments-- we beautified the pool area with cartoon-istic paintings and adorned the dining area with sponge painted fruits and vegetables while adding a non-sequential comic strip which bordered the floor board...

We jack-hammered some crumbling structures which lay in the center of these GIANT tee-pees and built  new fire pits, constructed of brick to ensure their ability to survive even the bluest of fires. Considering that I had never seen a jack-hammer at work "in real life," this was a special treat-- furthermore, his [the jack-hammer, I like to personify most everything] name was loving displayed across his forehead-- "Wacker." I will keep this in mind when Zach and I are naming our first child.

We built. A lot. We made an assortment of benches of varying sizes, we lay sod-- which loosely translates to "played in the mud," we built a barn for a potential petting zoo from the ground-up, we created a puppet theater, mapped out and installed an RC track to ensure that campers can be transported quickly and safely to their destinations, and played in the mud some more.

I am incredibly jealous of whoever got to operate this destructive piece of machinery...This our track in the making!

Puppet Theatre To Be..and of course, there's always time to break from labor to enjoy muddy hands, sun kissed cheeks and hair glued stiff with sweat..

We chiseled and painted signs so that campers [and us scatter brained servicers alike] could navigate the campus...feast your eyes on the finished product and and precise process...

We built some "shade structures" to ensure that campers would have multiple places to seek refuge from the unforgiving rays of the sun and also took some time to beautify the property with some greenery and yellowery [yes, that IS a word..

Mind you, there are over 500 photos so these are just some sneak-peeks to get the point across somewhat. After a total of 23 hours of drilling, hammering, measuring, walking, sweating, digging, planting, pressure washing, painting, taping, painting, painting, building, mumbling obscenities and let's not forget JACK-HAMMERING, we had completed each and every one of the tasks we set out to do. That's right, we had successfully completed our assignments [and then some] and felt incredibly proud of how much the appearance and functionality of the campus had changed. After reveling in our good-deeds rewarded with even better feeling by hugging, hustling and high-five-ing we decided that there was in fact ONE daunting task left un-done. Let's see if you can guess...

• 80 degree weather. 
• a coudless sky.
• relentless sweating
• a well-earned sense of accomplishment and compassion
• more sweating
• dehydration
• delirium
• exhaustion
• utter excitement

What in the world COULD all of these factors equate to!?!?!?!?! Let's also calculate in that we were a group of respectable, well-educated, 20-somethings/30-somethings who probably will never grow up. Friends, I will tell you what the solution is to this complex problem.....

We jumped in the pool...FULLY CLOTHED

...not to brag but Angella Copeland and I totally get props for being the first two girls to willingly cannon-ball into icy oblivion. Okay, I'm totally bragging. What else is new. Look at the rest of the group behind us, cowering in fear that we might hug them or sit in their lap thus drenching them. Which we did.

I must admit that I missed my fiance terribly as he had to remain in ol' Atlanta so that he could work on Saturday. 

However, I returned humbled and satisfied by my experience at Camp Twin Lakes. Being the biochemist nerd that I am-- I am incredibly fascinated by disease and the havoc it wreaks on ones body, I've spent my education studying anatomical and pure scientific complexities...having such knowledge causes me to posses unyielding gratitude for my health. I get to get up every day and go for a 5 mile jog whereas some of the kids that we served this weekend won't ever have the opportunity to stand on his or her own two functioning feet. There are so many things that I take for granted, that we as healthy individuals take for granted-- our ability to walk, ride a bike, brush our own teeth, sit in traffic, practice indecisiveness over what to eat for dinner, do cartwheels and know that we have a potential lifetime ahead of us. I feel genuinely fulfilled that our group might have helped to encourage a smile in at least one of the future campers hearts. I think that service is important-- we all need it at one time or another.

Let's not take things for granted anymore. 

Especially the little things.

Always and Until Next Time

M[+Z]