While most students spend their summer hours working or playing, nine students from Ohio State spent a week of their summer to volunteer at Minnesota’s Camp Heartland, a retreat for children infected with HIV/AIDS, or whose parents are infected with HIV/AIDS.
The program is part of OSU’s Alternative Spring Break. The ASB is a weeklong, community service trip to a city outside of Columbus during the university’s spring break. This is the first time an ASB was taken during the summer.
The trip was led by Susan Friedman, a senior in pre-medicine, and Alexandra Walter, a senior in strategic communication.
Friedman recently became certified in AIDS education, which was part of her motivation to take the trip.
“The numerous things I learned about this disease and its impact on those it touches made me eager to volunteer my time to help individuals affected by HIV/AIDS,” Friedman said. “(Camp Heartland) allows campers to have a weeklong retreat from their regular lives so that they can have fun and just be kids. But also it provides a community of supportive individuals who understand what it’s like to struggle with HIV/AIDS.”
While there, the students worked with camp counselors, many of who were former campers and were themselves infected with HIV/AIDS, to prepare for the incoming campers. They took part in activities such as building bunk-beds, constructing an amphitheater and building a heart shaped labyrinth out of stones.
The amphitheater, in particular, was to be a focal point of the camp. It was to be used for plays, meetings and group sessions for the entire camp.
“It was really inspiring because the counselors were all so optimistic and motivating, all while taking an arsenal of pills everyday just to live,” Walter said.
After the five days of fun eye-opening experiences at Camp Heartland, the students got back in the passenger van and headed home.
The experience gave the students a renewed appreciation for how serious HIV/AIDS is and gave them insight into what it is like to live with the disease.
“There are lots of misconceptions about people with HIV/AIDS. But when you dine and interact with them you realize they are no different than anybody else” Walter said.
“After my experience at Camp Heartland, the message I’d like others to know is, simply to have compassion for others. Despite the more liberal attitude of current times, HIV/AIDS still carries a stigma along with it,” Friedman said.
For more information regarding the Alternative Spring Break contact Collier Lumpkin in the Student Activities Office located in room 237 of the Ohio Union at [email protected] or call 292-8763.
