Camp Aim
For those that don't know Camp Aim is a special place for abused kids , below is a letter from some of our group that made a visit to this camp this year.
Camp AIM
06-15-2009
This was the “PLAN”:
Frank, Gail, and myself ride in on motorcycles, wave, smile, and say a few “words of wisdom” to the kids, hand out Teddy Bears, smile and leave… So much for ‘PLANS”!
You would think as old as we are, (especially Frank) that nothing would catch us off guard, but when we saw these kids, all three of us had lumps in our throats and had to fight to hold back tears.
We rode up all smiles and then the doors opened and the “kids” came out (approx. 40 of them). Now when you hear the term “Abused Kids”, for some reason I was thinking teenagers and older kids. These kids were 5 years old on up to 10 or 11. Some of them could not look you in the eye, but stared at the ground. Some stayed behind all the others as if not trusting anyone, until they saw the bikes, then it was like a swarm of bees.
The Director of the camp asked if we would like to say a few words but all I could force out through the lump in my throat was, “I don’t think so right now.” Frank and Gail were in the same shape as me. As we watched the kids swarm around the bikes, The Director asked if we would mind if the kids had their picture made on the bikes. Some of these kids were stone faced when they came out but as soon as Frank and Gail hoisted them onto the seats of the bikes a smile broke out as if a switch had been flipped.
Then came the time to hand out the Teddy Bears. We had an assortment of bears but even though we had several of the same bear, each kid had to pick his or her own bear.
One little girl picked up two identical bears and looked back and forth at them for several moments before finally picking the one on the right.
After handing out several bears I noticed a little girl so small she couldn’t see into the back of the truck, quietly standing waiting for a bear. I picked her up so she could see and her eyes lit up as she spotted “her” bear all the way up in the front of truck, so we crawled over all the pile of bears to get her fuzzy friend.
You wish you could wave a magic wand and wipe away the hurt and mistrust you saw in their eyes and let them have a normal fun childhood, but all we can do is let them know someone cares. Who would think that a couple of motorcycles and a few cheap little Teddy Bears could, at least for a few minutes, bring some happiness to a kid who has been through so much? The “words of wisdom” came to us from kids without saying a word.
As we were about to leave, four older girls, 11 or 12 came out to see the bikes and get their picture made. I thought they were helpers in the camp; Gail leaned over and told me that they were “mothers” and were in another part of the camp. Boy, there were a lot of gnats around that morning, or at least something kept getting in our eyes.
Thank You ABATE GA Dist. 1 for your support and a special thanks to Frank Chaney and Gail Corbin for the help getting the Teddy Bears a home.
Barry (Sweatbee) Corbin
PS: Pictures were made but due to privacy of the kids we will let the Camp Director give us a copy of what pictures we can use. ( to see the other pictures go to the photo page)
