 |
HAPPY CAMPERS: After Susan
Lipani lost her leg to cancer, Canton taught her
to play tennis again. Right, kids don capes for
“superheroes” theme week.
Courtesy Hole in the Wall
Gang Camp |
A summer day at the Hole
in the Wall Gang Camp is typical in most ways. Canoeing,
fishing and horseback riding are popular activities.
But this camp is home to what may be the world’s
largest wheelchair-accessible tree house and an infirmary,
dubbed the “OK Corral,” providing round-the-clock
care.
Such measures are necessary because the kids who come
to this camp in northeastern Connecticut have special
needs: Hole in the Wall is exclusively for children
with cancer, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, AIDS and
other potentially life-threatening illnesses.
Jimmy Canton began working at the camp after graduation
and has been there since. Now in his third year as executive
director, Canton knows the pleasure of watching a long-term
patient remember how to be a child again.
 |
Courtesy Hole in the Wall
Gang Camp |
“Our kids have been ostracized, they’ve
been deprived of acting like regular kids,” he
says. “Here, they get to have water fights and
pudding-eating contests and they go fishing for the
first time in their lives. It’s absolute joy.”
While blending medical care with camp activities is
difficult, the staff goes to extra lengths to include
every child in every activity. The pool is heated to
90 degrees so that sickle cell sufferers (who need to
remain warm to avoid blood vessel constriction) can
go swimming. If campers get cold, they can step into
a heating hut known as the “French Fry Warmer.”
As Canton puts it, “If we’ve excluded a
child, we’ve not done our jobs right.”
Paul Newman founded the nonprofit residential summer
camp in 1988 and provided much of the seed money. Now
the camp relies almost entirely on individual donations;
more than 1,000 campers, ages 7 to 15, enjoy their six-
to eight-day stay free of charge. Part of Canton’s
job is to secure the funding to keep it that way.
Canton started out working summers as a cabin counselor
(each cabin has six campers) and quickly moved up to
unit leader (supervising three cabins). In 1994, he
was promoted to camp director, a year-round position.
For eight years, he was responsible for the 120 children
attending each of nine summer sessions.
“Jimmy has been my inspiration for years and
years,” says Wendy Cook, ’89, who came to
Hole in the Wall as a counselor in 1990 on Canton’s
recommendation. “He’s a man who has a unique
and profound ability to connect with people. If I were
dying, I would want him by my side.”
Cook, who is now medical director at The Painted Turtle,
a sister camp an hour north of Los Angeles, was impressed
by Canton’s leadership during her four summers
at Hole in the Wall. “But at the same time,”
she says, “he can be really goofy and can get
up on stage and get everybody peeing-in-their-pants
laughing.”
Canton considered a career on Wall Street and then
almost landed at the State Department after graduation.
He has no regrets about the path he took, however. “When
you’re in an environment that reminds you of your
mortality, you’re reminded about what’s
more important in life,” he says. “You love
hard and you play hard. We see these children [in better
health] than many of their families see them because
they’re so alive and so happy.”
|
