To Nicole Giron, they are “superheroes.”
Camp Munroe, now in its 37th year, provides six weeks of fun, friendship and activities to the youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities it serves. But the “fun, fantastic summer” Giron is looking forward to has a more lasting impact, as well — due to the more than 200 volunteers who come through the camp each year, as well as more than 200 who volunteer with other recreational therapy programs through the winter, spring and fall.
“Our staff come back every year to see the kids,” said Giron, who is associate director of recreational therapy at the Munroe-Meyer Institute. “They love the kids that they work with. I think a lot of them come back because they get to see how the kids grow year after year.
“They get to see them reaching different milestones, and these really deep friendships form.”
Then the staff — who “bring this incredible dynamic energy,” who “don’t even have to think before going the extra mile,” in Giron’s words — go out into the community. And slowly, they will help to change the world.
“Camp Munroe is not only a day camp, it’s much more,” said MMI Director Karoly Mirnics, M.D., Ph.D. “It’s a skill-building, community building endeavor. It transforms the lives of individuals and gives them a meaningful, social set of events that lets them grow as individuals and live up to their full potential.”
All individuals — the volunteers, too.
“Our society has to be transformed, to learn to accept individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities for who they are,” Dr. Mirnics said. “Society has a long way to go in providing the care and inclusion that this population deserves.”
But Camp Munroe can be an agent for change, he said.
“When you have been operating for more than 37 years, and each year 400 typically developing individuals come through the camp and recreational therapy system who are volunteers — think about that,” he said. “Over 30-plus years, those individuals become doctors, lawyers and CEOs. They have a very different view of intellectual and developmental disabilities. They care.”
Such individuals, Dr. Mirnics said, are not afraid to employ someone with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As Giron notes, they want to make an impact — and are already making an impact.
“These volunteers have firsthand experience working with these amazing individuals, and that makes a difference in the society,” Dr. Mirnics said. “That’s the nature of how society is slowly being transformed. People ultimately rise to the level in their careers that they can do something to advance the cause.”
Giron points to former camp volunteers who are doctors, occupational and physical therapists, state and local government workers, police officers and are involved in many other walks of life.
“Our volunteers really care,” she said. “And they are going to continue to make a difference.”
This is really an excellent story that does a terrific job of showing the power of volunteerism. Well done!
I was a Camp Munroe volunteer, and later was hired as staff. I'm now a family physician. All these years later I still occasionally run into some of my former campers. Camp Munroe is amazing, and through my time there I learned so much, and became comfortable through our interacts. My experience there still helps me to this day in my approach to people. Thank you all so much for what you do, I'm glad it is still going on!