This weekend, Palmetto State Hangers was fortunate enough to again be invited to participate in Palmetto Campout, hosted annually by Sesquicentennial State Park and the SC State Park service. For those unfamiliar, Palmetto Campout is an event in which the State Park Service hosts families from across the state - $50 affords the family (with up to 2 children) a tent (to keep), food for the weekend, and a laundry list of activities for the family to learn (including geocaching, kayaking, arts and crafts, camp cooking, and many more). This year, Stacey Jensen, the Sesqui Interpretive Ranger and co-coordinator of the event reached out to us about a family who had been approved to join the event (there’s an application process) but unfortunately did not have the resources to attend. $50 was out of their budget so we jumped at the chance to help - The Hinton family would be able to attend this year, and they were just lovely folks from Greenville, SC who had a young autistic son that was simply a joy to be around. Special needs children was the focus of the event this year, so all of the families in attendance at at least one child preset with special needs - in most cases, I noticed it was a severe condition.
We camped Friday night in preparation for Saturday morning and the ensuing demo we were slated to do. It was a quiet night with only a few of us, and by Saturday morning all of our volunteers were present and accounted for - Junebugdawn, Pudden, DonMorgan, Kathryn, Darren, Jeff, and I. We enjoyed a comfortable breakfast after a cool 40 degree night with some coffee and the bacon that is ever-present at a gathering of PSH members and we dallied around the fire for a bit while we waited for the time to set up. One of the local club sponsors (Get Your Gear On, a local retailer) was there to do kayak and canoe trips around the small lake in the park, and their guide manager stopped by with his wife to hang out for a while. Around 12:30 the loaded up the truck and moved over to where the event was being held in a separate part of the park. We nommed on some hot dogs and fruit provided by the event staff and set up our demos - an ENO DoubleNest as an entry-level and readily available option, a PolyD hammock as an inexpensive but viable way to get elevated, a DIY hammock as a way to get in the trees in something you made yourself, a Dream Hammock Dangerbird with UGQ down underquilt (both from our loaner gear supply) as an example of a high-end cottage vendor offering, and finally a Grand Trunk single with a GT tarp and GT hang kit that we were giving away to one lucky family.
At 2:00, families started to trickle through the demo area. Several signed up to win the hammock, and many were interested in the Dream Hammock/UGQ setup in particular. As I came to find out, many children with autism have sensory issues and a hammock is or can be very theraputic because of the “hugging” feel of the fabric and the rocking motion that it can give them. A handful of the families were interested in both the therapeutic aspect, and as a full-time sleep solution for their child. It, to me, was a VERY educational experience...and I thought we would be the ones doing the educating! We met a great lot of really inspiring families and heard the sometimes heartbreaking stories of their children's disabilities, and it was an exceptionally rewarding experience to be able to learn so much from these folks. In the end, the Grand Trunk set was taken by a family from not far from the park who have a severely autistic son named Isaac who is also afflicted with Pica (a condition in which the person is compelled to eat things that aren’t food, which has led the family to lining his walls with sheet metal to stop him from eating the drywall) as well as a host of other health problems. They intend to use the hammock as a full-time sleep system for Isaac because it’s easily washable, therapeutic for him to lay in, and not something he can easily eat.
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We were so touched by another family that PSH member Pudden was moved to donate his personal ENO DoubleNest to the family - a family with six kids, two of whom were in attendance. One was severely autistic, the other had way more health issues than I could begin to recount...and they were all adopted. It was a touching, magnificent story and a treasure to have been able to meet these families.
This was the first year of the event that didn’t have Boy Scouts helping, and it showed - Paul McCormack (Regional Chief of the Sandhills Region and the other co-coordinator of the event) had his hands full with the cooking and organizing duties, so we offered our help...an offer he gladly accepted. He asked us to help the families cook their hobo meals over the coals that had been laid out nearby and we were glad to do it - it was an opportunity to help teach these families more outdoor skills and meet more of them.
We helped feed the families, and afterward Paul came down to us with two other folks in tow - another family of campers, I assumed, so we were ready to ask what we could do to help. No, Paul was escorting Phil Gaines, the director of the SC State Park Director and his wife down to meet us. Paul, we were told, had been bragging on us since our involvement the year before about our help with Palmetto Campout along with our other contributions to the State Park system here in SC. Mr. Gaines came down to thank us and meet us, and that’s just another thing that stacked up to make this a tremendous weekend.
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Evening rolled around, and we retired back to the primitive area where we’re more comfortable. We loaned a visiting Ranger a UGQ underquilt from our loaner gear because he came unequipped to hang in the cold, and we sat around our fire the rest of the night, telling lies and making fun of one another.
In all, it was an event the likes of which I’ve never experienced and that I’ll always treasure. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t an enlightening and richly rewarding event that I and the rest of our volunteers are supremely proud to have been a part of again, and I genuinely look forward to doing it again next year.
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