Daniel Prior
My name is Daniel Prior and I am excited and honored to be riding across the country for The Hole In The Wall Gang Camp. My personal experience with Camp begins back in the summer of 2011, after my freshman year of college, when I first volunteered for a week. I had to take a summer course for 5 weeks and was looking for a meaningful way to spend the free time I had. I had heard about Hole In The Wall, did some research, and learned that Camp was a place for children coping with life-threatening and chronic illnesses including cancers, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, HIV, and metabolic disorders, among others. I immediately filled out a volunteer application and was lucky enough to be accepted. Though I was signed up to volunteer for just a week, I knew within my first few days at Camp that I was doing the most significant work that I had ever done in my life; the opportunity to form the friendships and connections with those children in such powerful and meaningful ways, in such a short period of time, was the most fulfilling experience I had ever had. At the end of my first week there, I told the volunteer coordinator that I would love to help out if there were any open spots throughout the rest of the summer. As it turned out, I was invited to stay for the very next week, which was just as amazing as the first week.
The next summer, I returned to volunteer for another 2 weeks, before flying to New Zealand for my semester abroad. I ended up working as a full-time summer counselor for the next three consecutive summers, right up until I started at UConn medical school. Though I grew up fascinated by medicine, it was not until I started working at The Hole In The Wall Gang Camp that I knew I wanted to become a doctor.
The genius of Paul Newman’s idea was to take children who, in the outside world, largely cannot lead typical lives because of the all-consuming nature of their illnesses, and to let them be “normal” kids for a week. To be a part of this process was the most meaningful and moving thing that I have done in my life. As a counselor, I constantly cared for a cabin of eight to ten children between the ages of seven and fifteen. I was responsible for monitoring both the emotional and health needs of each child throughout the week. This work included things like changing wet beds in the middle of the night, spending nights in the infirmary with children, but also helping kids dunk in pool basketball and pranking co-counselors to bring all the campers together with laughter.
While I was at Camp, I felt good about my ability to spot when a child with a metabolic disorder began to overheat, or when a child would try to conceal sickle pain. However, it was in the infirmary that I was truly inspired to become a doctor. As I watched the medical team use their skillsets to gather information, assess situations and provide treatment, I realized that they were able to provide a critical side of healthcare that I could not. Regardless of how much I could help a child laugh and feel good, the medical professionals were the ones who impacted the actual disease. I was inspired as I saw how a medical career could provide me with the training that I needed to make a bigger difference.
If I were to distill what I've learned from my campers over the years into a single idea (basically an impossible undertaking), it would be that the children I've worked with have taught me the significance of safety, respect, and friendship, even when facing the most daunting of circumstances. My campers have given me a glimpse of the intimate patient-doctor relationships that I hope to have in the future, through which I hope to be able to provide more than simply medical care.
When I first went to Camp in the summer of 2011, I had no idea what I had signed up for, or that I would discover what I wanted to do with my life. Now, almost six years since I first set foot on Camp, I am incredibly lucky to be on the path to becoming a doctor. I am proud to be apart of the Hole In The Wall Gang and hope that by raising money and awareness about the mission of Hole In The Wall, we will be able to help even more kids and families experience the transformative benefits of Camp.
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