Carefree Sams Share their Christmas Spirit and Volunteers at Camp Boggy Creek

Wikipedia defines volunteering as “an altruistic activity where an individual or group provides services for no financial gain.”

There is more to volunteering than that definition shows. Volunteering has positive benefits for the volunteer as well as for the person or organization served. There are also the warmth in the hearts of the people volunteering and the many smiles of thanks for the people receiving the gift of the volunteer.

All of these are true for the members of a Florida Good Sam Chapter, the Carefree Sams. This chapter is based in Zephyrhills Florida. It is a like-minded group of camping enthusiasts that spend the entire year fund raising for Camp Boggy Creek. Their fund raising events include multiple yard sales, basket raffles and monetary donations of their members.

Every December, they camp as a group in Eustis Florida and help with “The Best Party on Earth!” They spend a few days before the event decorating Camp Boggy Creek. The day of the party, they help with activities, games and food for the campers and their families attending.

What is Camp Boggy Creek? It is a place of dreams, of joy, of possibilities. A camp where children with serious illnesses and their families can forget the word “no” for a little while and embrace the promise of “yes”. Founded by Paul Newman and General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the camp has one simple premise in mind, that every child, no matter their illness, could experience the transformational spirit and friendships that go hand in hand with camp. With unobtrusive expert medical care, the camp provides seriously ill children with a fun-filled experience defined by compassion, laughter and acceptance. Since 1996, Camp Boggy Creek has made it possible for children who’ve been diagnosed with chronic or life-threatening conditions to enjoy a camp experience in a safe, medically-sound environment. Camp Boggy Creek never charges campers to attend and never asks them to contribute anything other than a positive, playful attitude. Beyond boundless fun, Camp Boggy Creek provides fellowship. Children can spend time with others who are just like them and share their life-experiences, which serves as a reminder that they are not alone.

Our Volunteer Opportunity at Camp Boggy Creek

Looking for something different to do? We were ... until we discovered the volunteer opportunities at Camp Boggy Creek. We all come from a life where volunteering has been a part, volunteer firemen, baseball coaches, girl scout leaders, church school workers or volunteer workers in our community. None of our volunteer experiences in recent years have been as rewarding as volunteering at Camp Boggy Creek.

What is Camp Boggy Creek? It is a place of dreams, of joy, of possibilities. A camp where children with serious illnesses and their families can forget the word “no” for a little while and embrace the promise of “yes”. Camp Boggy Creek was founded by Paul Newman and General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, with one simple premise in mind, that every child, no matter their illness, could experience the transformational spirit and friendships that go hand in hand with camp experience. With unobtrusive behind the scenes expert medical care, it was their dream that the camp would provide seriously ill children with a fun-filled experience defined by compassion, laughter and acceptance. Since its inception, Camp Boggy Creek has made it possible for children with serious illnesses to enjoy a camp experience in a safe, medically-sound environment.

Nestled on over 200 acres of beautiful wooded land, this year-round camp in Eustis is uniquely equipped to serve more than 15 disease groups. In its multiple summer sessions and over fifteen family weekends each year, children with like illnesses come together for support and acceptance. The camp’s medical center, lovingly called “The Patch” allows for state-of-the-art care empowering campers to have the time of their lives. Annually, over 1,500 volunteers lend their time and talents to this inspiring work.

The camp offers children the chance to catch their first fish, go horseback riding or climb our ropes tower. All while making new friends and having fun in the wonderful Florida sunshine. Beyond boundless fun, Camp Boggy Creek provides fellowship. Children can spend time with others who are just like them and share their life-experiences, which serves as a reminder that they are not alone in the challenges they face. Enough background on this great place!

Our Good Sam chapter, Carefree Sams, had 10 volunteers at the camp's annual Christmas party this past weekend. This party is known as 'The Greatest Party on Earth!' All our volunteer jobs were at the many food stations! But that does not stop you from enjoying the fun! Jack Whitman could be seen dancing with the kids on stage from behind his “walking taco” station, while Pattye Starrett interacted with the smallest guests at her hot dog station.

There were over 600 campers and family members attended the annual Camper Holiday Party and it was a blast. There was everything from dunk tanks, Whack-A-Mole, giant turkey legs, arts and crafts, carnival games, great music and more great food than any child should eat! We had it all, plus tons of fun, as the campers and their families helped celebrate the holiday season, while forgetting about their illnesses and ailments for a short time.

If you are looking for a great place to volunteer, check them out at www.boggycreek.org.

How We Started Our Good Sam Chapter, Carefree Sams

Just like most people in a Good Sam Chapter, we all camped as kids and as adults, while we were raising our families. Some tented it, some had a pop up, other towed a trailer around the US while they worked their jobs, a few went big in a Class A from the start. But all of the members of our chapter have camped for many years and have been members of Good Sam Club. Some of us are even Lifetime members. All of our original members have camped together before. We each had attended a previous Samboree or The Rally or two. We met with several local chapters and even camped with one or two. None of them felt like the right fit for us. So, we spoke to the State Director, Joe & Debbie Weston, at the Spring Samboree and decided that we had enough interest to start our own chapter. That meeting was in April, it took us until June to get the founding members together and select officers. It took us until October to have our first meeting and until November to have our first camp out. We are still working on our own guidelines for how our chapter will operate.

We did design our Good Sam Chapter patch. We had several members sketch out different designs. Then we voted on the designs to decide on the final design of our patch. We created a patch that looks like a license plate, with Florida and our chapter number on the bottom of the license plate frame. The interior of the plate contains two “carefree people,” the Good Sam logo and our name Carefree Sams. We called ourselves Carefree Sams for a couple of reasons. One – We are very carefree, we do not plan much, we camp on a whim and are generally carefree. Two – Many of us do or did live in a community owned by Carefree. Three – It really had a ring to it and it really appealed to us! We also selected a unique color for our vests, purple. Purple? Yes, purple. No other chapter that we saw had that color! So, again, it seemed to be an easy choice for us.

What is the most important reason we started our own chapter? We all feel the answer is simple. We enjoy camping and we enjoy service to our community. We felt that Florida Good Sam chapters offer both of those. We also wanted to be with like-minded campers, have fun, develop lasting friendships, be successful and thrive as stewards of our community.