Our 2024 residential camp season has finished! All our campers and volunteers are now reflecting on their camp experience. For some, camp made them more confident. For others, it made them happy, thankful or brave.
Our Camp Made Me campaign helps us to hear about camp’s impact on you!
Mark is a special volunteer who is sharing his Camp Made Me story to get us started…
The start of Mark’s camp journey...
Mark has been volunteering with Over The Wall Camp for almost twenty years, but volunteering wasn’t the start of his camp journey. In the year 2000, Mark experienced the mischief and magic of being a camper with Over The Wall Camp. After his life-changing experience, Mark wanted to give something back. As soon as he was able to, he became a camp volunteer.
As a camper
Meeting people who understand
At camp, it was so lovely to speak to people who also have some form of health challenge. That was refreshing. Straight away, we all got on so well!
I felt like I couldn’t talk about what I was going through with my friends back home. It’s not that they weren’t great with me, but you just don’t understand some things unless you’ve been through them.
Discovering what you’re capable of
You think your health challenge stops you from being able to do lots of stuff. But camp made me more confident. It gave me that extra bit of confidence that I didn’t think was possible. You get that realisation inside the camp bubble that you can do it! You can do things you didn’t know you could.
We were distraught when we had to leave! It’s such an amazing experience that you fit into a short space of time!
As a volunteer
Seeing the campers thrive
I love standing with the other volunteers and looking at the environment we’ve created for these campers. Camp is a welcoming and nonjudgmental environment for children and young people to thrive in, and as a team, we’ve all contributed to creating that atmosphere.
It’s great to hear some of their conversations and all the laughter. They get to try things they didn’t think they could, and I enjoy seeing so many campers take on challenges and accomplish success.
Making like-minded friends
You get to know so many people on different levels. The relationships you make at camp are so unbelievably strong and supportive. It could just be a few camps I’ve shared with another volunteer, but the effect those few weeks have in such a short time… you’d think it was impossible! I’ve ended up going to the weddings of other volunteers I’ve met at camp.
Being part of other volunteers’ journey
I’m now in this amazing position where I can see new volunteers experiencing camp, returning volunteers, or even other ex-campers coming back to do multiple camps or become team leaders! It’s quite surreal for me, but it makes me so happy!
What OTWC means to me
I only planned to volunteer at that one camp in 2005 to give something back, but I’ve been involved ever since. That speaks for itself. Hearing the amazing feedback from campers and their families also keeps me coming back year after year.
Camp made me more positive in my daily life and helped me to make life that bit more fun.
Obviously, I didn’t want to ever be ill, but it’s given me one of the greatest parts of my life. Going to camp is the best part of my year; it’s something I always look forward to. It’s certainly been life-changing for me.
