Camp offers ‘amazing experience'
Volunteers needed for MDA event
MDA summer camp offers 'amazing experience'

By Michael Bratcher

Published: March 4, 2008

Curiosity got the best of Chad Weddle nearly 20 years ago. And as a result, today he trades in vacation time from work each summer to make a difference in the lives of a group of special students.

Like many of his childhood peers, Weddle spent some of his summer vacation attending Central Christian Camp in Guthrie.

But, while he and his friends were involved in daily activities, it was another group of campers who caught his eye.

Across the campground Weddle saw students who appeared different than him and his peers.

After visiting with a camp counselor, he learned they were attending the annual Muscular Dystrophy Association camp. And now — nearly two decades later — Weddle is a volunteer at the MDA camp.

"The camp provides a place for these kids one week out of the year to go and be with friends with the same affliction and feel comfortable,” Weddle said. "I have seen guys swim after not doing so for 10 years. There are goals the campers set, and they fight with their hearts to see the goals through, and to be a part of that has been an amazing experience.”

Weddle has volunteered four summers as an MDA counselor, choosing to take time off from his insurance job to work at two camp sessions a year. But camp volunteers are becoming scarcer each year, officials said.

"Camp would not be possible without volunteers,” said Jane Miller, camp director. "If we do not have a counselor for every camper, then a camper will have to be turned away.

"We have actually filled positions just hours before camp started, with a camper anxiously awaiting word as to whether or not they would get to come.”

Both Miller and Weddle would like to avoid that problem this year by seeking additional volunteers.

"Once a person has been to an MDA camp, they never look at it the same,” Miller said. "Camp is for the campers and 100 percent camper-centered, however, most of our volunteers get just as much out of camp, if not more, than the campers.”

Some volunteers have been coming to the camp for more than 20 years, even some who have moved outside of Oklahoma. The camp's clinic director, Dr. Brent Beson, chose to become a neuromuscular specialist mainly from his experience as a counselor during his teen years, Miller said.

MDA officials host two sessions in June each summer, one for ages 6 to 13 and the other for those ranging in age from 14 to 21. The camp has operated for more than 50 years and draws about 40 campers each session. Cost to attend is $800 and is paid by the MDA.

For Weddle, the first few days he volunteered seemed like any other job. But as the session continued, his relationships grew.

"I fell in love with the camp and all that it does,” he said. "Just as any kid, (the campers) have questions about life experiences, many of which I have been through. They aren't different; they enjoy the same music, movies and desires as we all do, and I have enjoyed every moment they have shared their interests with me.”

First-time volunteers may be amazed at how the camp functions as a whole unit, Weddle said.

He leaves camp each summer with an appreciation of all the work new volunteers put into the camp.

"The heart and spirit is alive there, and once the date comes near, I definitely begin to feel it,” Weddle said. "That spread of land in Guthrie comes alive each summer, and I want to be with it when it happens.”

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