Kyleen, center, with campers at the 2019 camp
I have been a counselor at Merry Heart Children's Camp for 6 years.
Before volunteering at Merry Heart I never talked about my heart condition and hid it from the world. In my time there I have not only grown to love and feel empowered by my congenital heart defect (CHD), but the members of camp and fellow volunteers have become like family.
The look on my campers' faces when they learn that I too, as their counselor, have CHD and have also had open heart surgery, is priceless. To be able to watch kids, who once, like me, did not know another soul with CHD, get to interact with others like them, truly warms my little CHD heart.
Every year is better than the last. Rob and Mary do an amazing job every year putting on such a spectacular camp. With a group of the most dedicated volunteers that I am so lucky to be apart of.
I truly look forward to camp every year. At this camp, not only are kids meeting other kids (and counselors) like them and learning about their heart, but they are becoming empowered in the process.
Every year I leave camp with good memories, a full heart, wide smile and watery eyes, counting down the days we all get to be together again.
Merry Heart will always be my second home, where I get to be apart of the most wonderful organization that lets kids just like me go to camp.
Kyleen "Hatter" Carter