You are a child. You are living with AIDS. You are also having the greatest summer of your life, making friends and sharing your pain with others who have been afflicted with the same illness. This is the essence of Camp Heartland, a year-long program designed to provide children and young adults with HIV/AIDS the opportunity to develop lifelong friendships and experience the joys of being a carefree kid at summer camp.
This Wednesday at 7 p.m., four children from Camp Heartland who have been affected by HIV/AIDS will be at the Great Hall, Memorial Union to share their inspirational life stories. The event, called Journey of Hope, is an AIDS Awareness program that travels to dozens of schools, universities and communities across the nation annually so the children can share their messages of hope and compassion with others in a free public forum. The event on Wednesday is sponsored by the UW-Madison chapter of Students for Camp Heartland.
\Journey of Hope is basically just an awareness program to show that these kids were born this way. [Having HIV/AIDS] is not a punishment for something that these kids did. It is also to educate the public,"" said Britt Barger, a UW-Madison senior and active member of Students for Camp Heartland.
One of the children scheduled to speak at Journey of Hope is Nile Wolff, the boy whose inspirational story was the reason for the establishment of Camp Heartland.
In 1993, UW-Madison alumnus Neil Willenson founded Camp Heartland after being inspired by the story of Nile Wolff, a young boy from Neil's hometown of Mequon, Wis., who was living with HIV/AIDS. According to the Camp Heartland Web site, http://www.campheartland.org, Willenson and a few dozen college students raised money and were able to rent a campsite in Wisconsin and provide a summer of fun for 73 children.
Camp Heartland became a place where ""children living with HIV/AIDS could step out of the shadows of secrecy into the light of openness and honesty. A place where kids with AIDS could live without lies and have a chance to make real friends. A place where they could have the best week of their lives,"" the Web site stated. Camp Heartland has also been equipped with state-of-the-art medical facilities to provide care for the special needs of the campers.
In 1997, Camp Heartland set up its permanent location in Willow River, Minn., and has recently started another campsite in Malibu, Calif., in order to accommodate all of the children wishing to attend the camp.
According to the Web site, Camp Heartland ""is a light in the darkness for children who live every day of their often all-too-brief lives in a thickly shadowed world of chronic illness and discrimination. ... Campers gain a sense of liberation, support, strength, hope, and confidence"" from their time spent at camp.
Camp Heartland offers more than just summer camp. Campers take part in seasonal reunions and Life Enhancement Programs so they can maintain and further develop the friendships and skills that were developed at camp.
The UW-Madison chapter of Students for Camp Heartland, an organization designed to raise money for the camp as well as perform HIV/AIDS awareness and community outreach projects in the Madison area, was founded the same year that the camp was established in Wisconsin. The student organization does more than simply raise money and donations for the camp, it also provides outreach projects in the Madison community.
""We have education programs where we go to local schools and talk to kids, usually middle school age, about HIV and how you can and cannot contract it,"" Barger said. ""We go to children's hospitals and do a lot of AIDS awareness programs.""
According to Barger, membership in Students for Camp Heartland has ""exploded"" since its founding in 1997. There are over 300 members on the e-mail list and 10 core students who show up to the meetings each week.
""A couple friends were part of [Students for Camp Heartland] and I thought it was a good cause for the kids,"" said sophomore Brianne Peterson, who became interested in the UW-Madison chapter of Students for Camp Heartland outreach program during her freshman year. ""[The organization] held a coin war in the fountain on Library Mall. ... They had dances and did Battle of the Bars where bars competed to see who could raise the most money for the camp.""
Battle of the Bars and the Fountain Fundraiser are the two most successful fundraisers on the UW-Madison campus for Camp Heartland.
""Battle of the Bars is the big fundraiser where we set bars against each other and whatever bar has the most money for us gets free advertising. People help by buying the drink specials,"" Barger said. ""Battle of the Bars is coming up in April, but we are not completely sure of the dates yet.""
Another fundraiser that Students for Camp Heartland hosts is the Fountain Fundraiser located in the fountain in Library Mall.
""We ask people to dump their spare change [in the fountain] or make flat donations,"" Barger said.
Although Students for Camp Heartland is associated with the camp itself, to become a counselor or volunteer at the actual camp requires going through the camp office in Milwaukee.
""I hope to be going [to Camp Heartland]. I would love to be a counselor there,"" Barger said.
