Lessons Learned at Camp Last a Lifetime

- Former Hiram House Camper Cites Experiences as Child -

Former camper Sheila Thompson

There is an old saying, “You are now what you learned then,” meaning that childhood experiences can mold and shape your adult life, for good or ill. For one Cleveland native, that has certainly proven true for the better, and enriched not only her own life, but continues to touch the lives of others.

Meet Sheila A. Thompson, Social Worker for the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services. Among her professional responsibilities, she manages cases, and works closely on an ongoing basis with children and families in need, as well as area service providers, to plan and monitor beneficial services, such as parenting skills, anger management, and much more.

Growing up in Cleveland, Thompson attended Gracemount Elementary and Epiphany Catholic School and was a 1972 Graduate of Lutheran East High School, where she was a cheerleader. She studied at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University, earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Clark University in Atlanta, Georgia and became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. She then taught in early childhood education, in grades one to three, as an elementary school teacher in Atlanta for several years before returning to Cleveland in 1997.

As such, she was following in the footsteps of her mother, Pearl L. Thompson, who was a teacher with the Cleveland Public School District for some 28 years. Mrs. Thompson taught classes at Parkwood Elementary, Margaret Spellacy Middle School, George Washington Carver, and West Junior High School, before retiring in 1985. Over the years, she often took her own students to School Camps, held at Hiram House, through Cleveland Schools’ camp program.

While there, she saw firsthand what Hiram House offered youth. Later, she and her husband, Walter E. Thompson, sent their own children there each year. From the ages of 7 to 14 years, Sheila and her older brother, Walter T. “Ricky” Thompson, were summer resident campers at Hiram House and also at the now closed Camp Mueller.

Thompson was all smiles as she reminisced how they learned archery, horseback riding, swimming, canoeing, fishing, to build a campfire and make S’mores. She still fondly remembers the words to songs she learned at camp, a feat she demonstrated this summer, when she spontaneously broke out in song as she was reunited at camp with Hiram House’s Executive Director Russ Grundke. He was her former horseback riding instructor at camp back in the 1960’s.

She chuckled when she remembered her first year at camp. “Even though I was having fun, I cried every day because I missed my family. Then, although I was happy to see my parents when they came to pick me up at the end of the season, I cried because I didn’t want to leave.” After that, she really looked forward to going back to camp each summer and she cried again each year when it was time to leave camp to go home.

But, even more important to Thompson than the fun she had at camp were the lessons and values she learned and the lifelong friends she made there. She noted that when you’ve known someone from the age of seven, your relationship develops from “friendship to kinship”. Those friends, who are now like family, were wonderful and supportive and helped to sustain her when she lost her own family several years ago.

Sadly, her mother and brother died suddenly of heart attacks within a short time of each other in 1997, just shy of her parent’s 50th anniversary celebration, which she and her brother had been planning for them. Her mother was age 71 and her brother was just 45 years old. Her father died a few years later in 2001 at age 78. Still, Thompson says she was fortunate that she had a wonderful family and warm memories to last a lifetime, more than many children have that she deals with everyday. That is why she strongly believes that the joys of camp and the lessons and values it instills are so badly needed in today’s society.

In today’s fast-paced world, Thompson recognizes that computers and technology are good things, but they can never replace the human touch and positive benefits when people interact with one another. She highly recommends camping for any child, calling it a “most wonderful experience, which she believes can even be “life-altering” for some children, especially youth at risk. It helps them see that there is more to life than just rap music, gangs, or other negative influences. At camp there are no distractions, just the peace of nature, being outdoors in the woods, where they can enjoy simple things, like learning to hike, that can mean so much. They can also learn how to transfer information gleaned from one situation to another in life, like gaining self-esteem and confidence.

That life experience came full-circle earlier this year when she recommended that one of her clients, a 10-year-old boy, dealing with very difficult family circumstances, really needed a respite from home and time to just be a child and would benefit from camp. She arranged to bring him to Hiram House this summer as a resident camper.

The boy “had a wonderful time” and the experience and environment were very good for him, Thompson explained. She praised Hiram House for being instrumental in helping make the project possible and for partially funding him through its “Campership Fund,” which enables hundreds of area children to attend a life-enriching summer camp each year and helps to supplement other private and public resources.

Thompson is grateful that Hiram House is still here to meet the needs of today’s children. She wants to give back to the next generation what she received from her own camp experiences and hopes to become a volunteer at camp in the future she said while visiting the annual Pumpkin Festival at Hiram House this October. Proceeds from this fun-filled, family event benefit the Hiram House Campership Fund for disadvantaged youth.

Finally, Thompson cited her own lessons learned as a child at camp as proof positive that in life good things often do come back around to everyone’s mutual benefit. Or, as she is fond of saying, “What good is love if you can’t give it back?”.

Summer Resident, Day and Junior Day Camp 2005 registration is now open for one or two-week sessions, from June through July and for Horseback Riding Programs in August. Day and Resident Camp also include Horseback Riding and the Climbing Wall.

Summer Resident Camp (overnight) - one or two-week sessions from June 20 to July 29, for boys & girls, ages 6 to 13. (Financial aid may be available for those in need who qualify. Contact camp office for details.)

Summer Day Camp - two-week sessions from June 20 to July 29, for boys & girls, ages 6 to 11.

Summer Junior Day Camp - two week sessions from June 20 to July 29, for boys & girls, ages 5 & 6.

An information meeting for registered Summer Day and Junior Day Campers and their families will be held on Tuesday, March 15, at 7:00 p.m., at Hiram House.

Hiram House will again hold its popular Summer Horseback Riding Program, with lessons at the camp’s “Double H Ranch”.

Summer Horseback Riding Program - two one-week sessions, August 1 to 5 & August 8 to 12, boys & girls, ages 6 to 17.

To register or for more information, please contact Hiram House at (216) 831- 5045 or click here.

Don’t miss out on all the summer fun! Sessions fill quickly and registration is on a first come basis. Makes a great gift for that special child in your life!