(Story and photos courtesy Lisa Kaylor, Children’s Hospital of Georgia and Wellstar MCG Health.)
Football players from the University of Georgia took time from their busy practice schedule on Tuesday, June 11, to surprise campers at Camp Rainbow.
After arriving at the Family Y’s Camp Lakeside, the players – Trevor Etienne, Jordan Hall, Miles Thornton, Terrell Foster, Dan Jackson and Malaki Starks – piled into golf carts and first visited the cabins, where the younger campers were relaxing after a morning filled with activities and getting ready for lunch. Each child was given a necklace with a plastic football attached, where they could collect the players autographs.
Timidly, a young girl in a pink T-shirt held hers out for Jordan Hall and asked, “Can you sign your autograph?”
“I would be honored to,” he replied.
As players made their way to the cabin porches to have group photos made with the campers who were staying in them, the campers chanted, “Goooo Dawgs!”
Afterward, the players loaded up in their van and went to Pointes West Army Resort, where the teen campers were preparing to challenge themselves on the ropes course. Watching from the ground as a group used hooks and tiptoed their way across a very high tightrope, one of the players looked up nd yelled, “I’m so proud of you, and I just met you!”
Camp Rainbow, for kids living with cancer, runs from June 9-13 and is one of five summer camps for children with medical needs. Other camps include Camp Joint Venture for kids living with rheumatic conditions, June 23-27; Camp Wheeze-N-Sneeze for kids living with asthma, and Camp Kidney Bean for kids with living kidney disease July 12-13 and Camp Strong Heart for kids living with heart conditions July 26-27.
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