Julie Pate, left, and a Victory Junction camper show off their temporary tattoos at the Fab Shop. Credit: Courtesy

Inside Victory Junction: A volunteer's perspective

Julie Pate spent the week of June 10-16 in Randleman, N.C., as a volunteer counselor at the Victory Junction Gang Camp. Children attending the camp that week had hemophilia and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, although several children with different circumstances were also at the camp.

She shared her week with NASCAR.COM.

	Campers -- and volunteers -- cool off in the pool. Credit: Courtesy
	PHOTO GALLERY • Victory Junction Gang Camp

"The Victory Junction Gang Camp is the only place my child feels normal" a parent says to you as she picks up her child at the end of the week.

The child has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, and after a solid week of games, adventures, crafts and little sleep, crying was the only thing she knew to do in knowing that her five days were over. It was the only thing any of us knew to do.

Maybe it was acting in the theater that made her feel normal, or walking the llamas, or painting ponies. It could have been riding a zip-line down the hillside more than 30 feet above the ground. You know it made you feel normal when she asked you to go with her. More than likely, however, it was the fact that there were no hospitals, scrub-wearing nurses or questions that start off, "Are you feeling OK today?" Plus there were 104 other children there that go through the same things she does every day -- treatments, medication and therapy.

The Victory Junction Gang Camp is one big bubble.

By Tuesday, you have been at the camp for three days and wonder why there has been so much rain. Quick phone calls home that night explain everything -- Tropical Storm Alberto had gone up the East Coast, but nobody at the camp knew. After 14 hours of dancing, activities and good old country fellowship every day, cell phone usage was limited. So was Internet access. And so was television -- just one TV is located on the campus. Victory Junction is in its own world, and that's the purpose. You're just thankful to be there.

	Pattie Petty, CEO, Victory Junction Gang Camp
	CAMP HEALING FAMILIES, TOO The Victory Junction Gang Camp provides a place for ill children to participate in a weeklong schedule of activities. But it's also a healing tool for families.  •   Complete story, click here

Kyle, Pattie and their late son Adam Petty are the face of the Victory Junction Gang Camp. As a camp counselor, you're the arms that welcome the campers each week.

Victory Junction is set on 72 acres in Randleman, N.C., and provides a NASCAR-themed camp setting for chronically ill children ages 7-15 who may not have opportunities to attend regular summer camps. During your week as a volunteer counselor to children with hemophilia and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, children with various other diseases are there as well.

But it doesn't matter what they have. Illness at the camp is secondary, and it's evident by looking at the names of each building. For kids who have become fluent in medical terminology by the time they're teenagers, Body Shop is a refreshing name of the on-site hospital. Instead of a cafeteria, it's a Fuel Stop. Instead of a salon, it's a Fab Shop, and that is a highlight of the week for girls, as well as the male counselors who get their nails polished, too.

Your teenage girls have more fun swimming, doing arts and crafts and brushing sparkly paint into the manes of ponies down by Jesse's Horsepower Garage than just about anything. They pet bunnies and ride horses there, too, which the camp's horse trainer says is great physical therapy, not to mention the mental aspects that form smiles.

But as part of either first, second, third and fourth turns (names for the four daily activity periods), the Fab Shop is the most popular for your girls in the Red Unit (ages 13-15). They can wash the counselor's hair, paint nails, put on makeup or fake tattoos or just be silly and go to the extremes regardless of gender.

I stayed in Las Vegas with Bristol and Texas as my neighbors.

Full-time and volunteer nurses staff the camp at all times. Credit: Courtesy

THE MEDICAL FACTOR Although illness is secondary at the Victory Junction Gang Camp, medical staff and volunteers are on site at all times.  There are two volunteer nurses and one staff nurse with each of the four units and a doctor and other staff available at the Body Shop.  They bring "meds" to the meals and are available at the Body Shop if there are any accidents or questionable injuries.  But there are no scrubs or stethoscopes around their necks. They're dressed in camp clothing and wear the daily clothing theme (pajama day, color to support the unit, etc.) to blend with other counselors throughout the week.  They don't approach the campers and say, "How do you feel." They ask, "How's it going?"  Counselors are also educated on the particular disease, illness or disability before the kids arrive to know what to look for if a child needs to visit the Body Shop.  Hemophilia week required campers to receive Factor if they were hemorrhaging blood.  Factor is injected intravenously, and the affected campers had the option to learn to self-inject through a medically instructed class. One volunteer nurse let the campers practice injection on her to get familiar with the procedure.  At the end of the week, campers who learn to self-inject get a reward for "first stick" if they complete the mission.  -- Julie Pate

As a counselor, you might not have known the name of a storm passing through, but at least you know the words to Peanut Butter Jelly Time.

Every morning -- or at any given time -- it's like a rooster crowing. Only it's another group of campers shouting their cheers as they march to Pole Position (the 7 a.m. early-bird activity that your girls never miss). For your group -- the Red Unit -- the cheer is Peanut Butter Jelly Time ... "Peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly and a baseball bat," ... five days after camp you can't get it out of your head.

You're the Red Unit because you're in the red Las Vegas cabin. There are four cabin units where campers and counselors sleep -- red, blue, green and yellow -- and campers are divided into four cabins of these colors by age group. Each of the 16 cabins is named after a track, and the Las Vegas cabin is sponsored by Kevin and DeLana Harvick. Memorabilia of Harvick's No. 29 Chevrolet is everywhere.

But it isn't just morning time when groups shout their identity cheers. It's lunch time -- "Jump, shake your tailpipe." It's walking between activities -- "Boom, boom, shake, shake the room." It's anytime the kids, or counselors, want. When it's your unit's turn, your kids want to be the loudest. You want to be the loudest. There's pride among the Red Unit.

With the cheers come dances, and in five days you learn three of them -- from the campers -- and yell louder than you have in years. You give more high-fives and pats on the back for a job well done than you remember ever giving. You grow to care about these children. And the children grow to care about you.

One camper tells you that she comes back each year for the relationships she forms with the counselors and campers. That makes you want to come back next year, too. And someday, that same girl will be a counselor when she's old enough. She told you so.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

That's the question asked during Tuesday's Roses and Thorns game with the younger boys. Roses and Thorns is a nightly cabin chat in which the campers and counselors share their favorite and least favorite part of the day. Roses are the best part, thorns are the worst.

On Tuesday, Richard Petty's visit to the camp was the rose.

Robbie Loomis and the Petty Enterprises team stop by the camp nearly every week. Credit: Julie Pate

After checking on the progress for Tony Stewart's new maze, Petty walks into the Fuel Stop to talk with the campers during lunch. Pictures flash, and most of the young kids -- despite never seeing The King race a single lap -- immediately know who he is. Whatever can be found, whether it's a napkin, a shoe or even (yes) a banana, kids grab it and take it to him for an autograph. During the whole lunch hour while Petty visits with the kids, he skips lunch for himself. Always does. Not even a banana.

On NASCARnival night, the crew from driver Bobby Labonte's No. 43 team, including director of operations Robbie Loomis, arrives as that day's rose. You nudge one of the young campers to go get a picture with Loomis. You know how important he has been to racing, with his past time spent as Jeff Gordon's crew chief and his current task at rebuilding Petty Enterprises. "Who's Jeff Gordon?" the camper responds. No worries. Just get the picture. It'll be worth it.

Do they know how many cartons of ice cream we used in our food fight?

You wonder if Kyle and Pattie Petty know what goes on at this camp, and at that specific moment, Pattie walks in for a visit.

The campers and counselors are divided into four units: Red, Yellow, Blue and Green. Credit: Courtesy

She does know that campers learn how to tie-dye T-shirts. She does know that children share their thoughts and feelings about life and play hard like the children they are. She does know that children try as much as they feel comfortable with at the camp and succeed at things they may not otherwise have the opportunity to do. Then they master things like "first stick," when a child with hemophilia learns during a Pole Position class the proper way to self-inject their medicine.

Children also learn to enjoy the moment, like climbing the ropes course, or learning the ropes of social interaction by overcoming the fear that nobody else is quite like them. At Victory Junction, everyone is like them. And everyone participates in the Silly "O" (food fight) or supports their newfound friends at spirit night.

Numbers are exchanged, e-mail addresses are written down. Most of the campers have already been to Victory Junction before, and they will be back. Some of the campers are already counting the number of years they have left to attend the camp. And it doesn't make leaving any easier.

"At camp, we don't say goodbye, we say see you later."

There you stand in front of the lake at dusk, holding your golf ball. It's the last night of camp, and your summer counselor tells campers and volunteers to write something on the golf ball that you will remember from your week. One thing on this tiny golf ball?

	The theme for this summer's camp is "Season of Love." Credit: Courtesy
	VICTORY JUNCTION The beautiful, natural setting for The Victory Junction Gang Camp is 72 acres of land surrounded by hardwood forest. The camp is located in Randleman, N.C., approximately 15 minutes outside of Greensboro. Nestled in the foothills of the Piedmont Triad, this site offers a rolling terrain with several creeks and woodland streams running through the property.  •   More, click here

Was it the zip-ride? Was it the campers you met? Was it the summer staffers that are so good at what they are doing? Each of the five days you have just spent with 105 campers, 75 summer counselors and 46 other volunteers suddenly scroll through your head like a Rolodex. The page it stops on is the first page you etched in your memory: "Season of Love." It's the theme for the entire summer.

The real world -- for the campers and for the volunteers -- is just a night away. But the season will continue. You scribble "Season of Love" down as some of the kids start throwing their golf balls into the water. You close the pen. You look up and there are volunteers and summer counselors crying as they give their golf ball their best toss into the lake.

You'll miss the cheers and chants, the laughter from the Red Unit kids you worked with and finally the song you sang each day after lunch:

"And I was thinking maybe somewhere later down the road, after all our stories have been told, I'll sit and think of you, the dear friend I once knew, shot through my life like a shooting star."

The tears fall down your cheek, and you throw your golf ball as hard as you can. It's the only thing you know to do.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.