Aug 17 - 22, 08 - Ken and I spent a week volunteering at the Painted Turtle - a camp for children with medical issues - in Lake Hughes, CA. The week we were there, all of the children had Type 1 Diabetes, so we learned a lot about that disease and the realities of dealing with it on a day to day basis. We aren't allowed to post pictures of the kids, so you're stuck with looking at pictures of Ken and I and the camp itself.
The volunteers were there a day before the kids got there, so we had time to get trained and oriented to the camp. The sign I am standing in front of is the name of the road we were on, not an indication of my personality.
There were a total of 12 cabins. I was assigned to Yellow 3, a cabin of 10 11-year old girls. Ken was on the other end of the camp in Blue 4, a cabin of 10 14-16 year old boys.
Each cabin had a room for the kids - don't they look so cute and nice - and a nice bathroom for the campers. The counselors had their own sleeping area, on the other side of the cabin, but they weren't decorated as cute as this room was.
There were lots of activities for the kids to do - canoeing, archery, crafts, horseback riding, ropes course - and that kept us busy from morning to night. My favorite activity was the one where the kids got to paint the counselors and volunteers - it took me 2 days to get the pink and purple paint out of my hair. One night at dinner we all had to come to dinner with "wacky hair". This is as wacky as I got, but the kids had a lot of fun with it. Most of them used a combination of hair spray, colored and mousse, and lots of hair elastics.
On another evening, the kids went to a carnival. Ken took his turn being the "target" - and as you can see, had a lot of fun (even though I think he had his ears on upside down).
On the last night, the kids were all asleep and the counselors and volunteers in our cabin got a little silly - it was late and we'd been playing hard all week. We were impatiently waiting for the promised milk and cookies that would be delivered soon.
Ken and I had a lot of fun, even though we didn't see much of each other - we were too busy keeping track of the kids we were assigned to. It was an exhausting week, but definitely worth the effort and we're already looking forward to going again next year. We headed home with very fond memories of the Painted Turtle.
Kris Schnell (brother) and family, along with Ernie Schnell (father) and his friend, came to visit Ken and I in Flagstaff - what a fun weekend. We all went to Sunset Crater State Park, where the 3-generations of Schnells posed for a picture.
