Courtney Sell

Throughout high school I tried to be as active of a citizen as I could and serve my community in various ways including supporting my local town on parade days, helping set up luminaries in another close by town, helping at the elementary school annual carnival, supporting an angel tree child and so much more. Through all of this I found a passion for service, but much more importantly I found a passion for serving children and making a greater impact in their lives. When I was 8, my parents decided to send me to 4-H camp and I instantly fell in love. I went until I was too old to go anymore and then I applied to be a volunteer. Serving these children and continuing to go to camp to give my time and experience to them is one of my favorite things in the world and it is definitely when I feel most “alive”.

My first year as a volunteer was the first time I really had to be responsible for younger kids. Like most everyone else I had babysitted when I was younger but only for my cousins and other family. But this was different. I didn't know these kids and I didn't know their backgrounds, but one of the biggest things I had to worry about is that someone else was trusting me to watch over their child and that was a lot of pressure on me. Though all of this sounded like a lot, when the time came, it wasn't nearly as hard as it sounded. It was actually pretty easy and I basically just had to use my instincts when it came to things. My first year as a teen went very well and I loved every minute of it, but one thing over everything else stuck out to me and I will always remember it. On our last night just before lights out I wanted to reflect on the week with the two campers that were in my room with me. I asked them how they liked this week, what their favorite class was and what their favorite part of camp was. I was expecting the answer to the last question to be the usual “campfire” because that it always every camper's favorite part, but I was very shocked to hear them smile and say that I was their favorite part. I couldn't help but get the biggest smile on my face and from that moment on I knew that I was going to be serving as a volunteer at camp for a long, long time.

After serving my second year as a volunteer, I got together with two of my good friends that were also volunteers at this camp that I went to school with. We all got along really well because we were all loved science and especially chemistry. We had when we applied to be a volunteer to create our own class with one or two more volunteers to teach at camp. We decided that because we loved chemistry so much and knew so much about it that we were going to create a Mad Scientist's class. From the first day this class proved to be a hit. The kids loved blowing up things and making cool science experiments that they could take home. I loved seeing how genuinely excited to get to come to my class and it was great to know that they loved it as much as I did. On the last day I decided to reflect again and once again I was told that this was their favorite part of camp. One person even told me that they weren't planning on coming back but they were going to because we made this week so much fun for them. To  know that I was making this much of a difference in someone's time at camp was just an amazing feeling and it makes what I'm doing feel like the best thing in the world.

Camp has had a huge impact on my life and I can't help but to tell everyone about my stories every time camp comes up. I look forward to going every summer and start counting down the days months in advance. I couldn't imagine my life without serving my community in this wonderful way and I couldn't think of anything that makes me feel more “alive”.