We are so excited to unveil our June Hand Camp HEROES nominee! Our HEROES have been identified and nominated by their fellow campers, or other members of the Hands to Love community for the work they are doing to further the mission and vision of the organization. Hand Camp HEROES all have certain characteristics in common: Heart, Empower, Resilient, Optimistic, Embrace, and Selfless.
Our HEROES review committee reviews each submission to ensure the nominee meets the criteria. Once a month, we will feature a Hand Camp HERO on this page, as well as on our social media and in our newsletter. We are so excited to share the stories of all our HEROES!
Hero’s Name:
Cameron “Cam” Haight
Affiliation with Hands to Love:
Hand Camp Camper
Nominated By:
Sarah Haight
How does Cam exemplify the qualities of Hand Camp HEROES?
Heart – they’re full of it.
Cam loves to help others by spending many hours designing, modeling, and 3D printing assistive devices for other kids who were born with special hands similar to those of his own.
Empower – themselves or others.
Cameron uses his own experiences living with limb differences to spread awareness about limb differences. He then empowers others like him to do the same. He also visits schools and conferences to let others ask him questions, to help those without limb differences understand what is is like to live with a physical difference in hopes that it will empower those children and adults to be kind and stand up for others with any kind of difference.
Resilient – they know how to get back up, time after time.
Cameron has overcome double clubbed casts on both hands, 19 surgeries to separate his residual fingers and toes, and everyday tasks such as learning to tie his own shoes, working buttons, and even learned to run a 3D printer and the slicing software at the age of 4.5 years old! He has failed many times doing what we may think are simple tasks but he never gives up. He will try and try again until he overcomes or finds a new way – his own way to complete the task.
Optimistic – they always see the silver lining.
Cameron has days that he feels defeated but they are rare because he has this light inside of him that always powers through and and energy to light up others around him. <3
Embrace – anyone and any situation, no matter how challenging.
Cam embraces and even welcomes the challenge – sometimes even maybe too much! LOL
Selfless – always looking for ways to put others first.
I personally feel that Cam puts himself before others each time he chooses to spend his afternoon designing a swimming paddle, a better device sleeve or any other device he is working on that day . He puts him own gaming and playtime aside to visit schools and then has to work harder to make up his own missed schoolwork. He is the third child and craves attention (he is even quite full of himself but we like to thank camp for the boost of confidence each year for that! ) however, he is not happy when others are not happy and he would give his shirt to another if it made them feel better even for a minute.
An additional note from Sarah:
I want to thank Nate Goodwin for thinking of Cam for this. I wish he was able to be here to nominate Cam himself and see this but I know he is up there celebrating all of the accomplishments of these amazing kids and families!
If you know someone who exemplifies the traits of our Hand Camp Heroes, you can nominate them by clicking here!