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Golf Tournaments a Success!

Golf Tournaments were sponsored this year by the following groups:

* Albemarle County Professional Firefighters in March, located in Charlottesville 

* The Virginia Chapter of the American Fire Sprinkler Association in September, located in Richmond

* Old Dominion Professional Firefighters Burn Foundation in September, located in Richmond

 

Large donations were made to support CVBC.  Many thanks to the members and supporters of these Association!

 

 
National Burn Camp highlights

The International Association of Firefighters sponsors a camp for 1 week each year.  This camp is held in Washington, DC. Burn camps from across the country and Canada are invited to send one of their teenage campers, along with a counselor, for a week of fun, touring and friendship.  This year, camper Davey Elliott had the opportunity to attend this camp, along with yours truly, your camp co-director, Leslie. 

Davey’s Report

Dear CVBC,

What’s up?  This is Davey, with the report on National Burn Camp.  Leslie and I took a plane that looked like a relic left over from WWII.  We arrived safe in D.C., where the IAFF put us up in the National 4-H Center.  The accommodations were worthy of a nice hotel.  I shared the room with two roommates.  Jason was cool, and Lowell was kind of weird.  We ate at firehouses, and several restaurants.  The Hard Rock Café and Benihana’s had some of the best food ever.  A bit of advice to next year’s camper; take some comfortable shoes.  Ten miles would be a conservative guess on how far we walked a day.  We saw the Washington Monument, which was huge.  While we were at the FDR Memorial, we saw lots of sculptures that were influenced by the Great Depression.  From there we walked to the Jefferson Memorial.  At the National Archives, the foreign guard yelled at me for breathing on the four-inch glass that protects the Constitution.  The two coolest places we visited were the Smithsonian Museum and the Spy Museum.  They took us swimming at the navy Medical Center, where Dick Cheney gets his check-ups.  The White House was as white as ever, and it was pretty busy for someone’s house.  All these places had some crazy security.  I probably walked through enough metal detectors to cause six or seven tumors.  When we were at Mount Vernon, I was picked to lay a wreath inside the Washington family crypt.  The National Zoo is worth a visit if you’re in the area cause those animals were cool (except the spiders).  The most influential thing I experienced were the night tours at the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials.  It was enlightening to see all the Americans that left to fight for our freedom, and never saw their families again.      Now that I got the technical stuff out of the way, I’d like to give a few opinions.  

First, the food couldn’t touch our camp cooks’ creations, and I can’t wait until lasagna night this summer.  Also (for the chick rating), there were some fine girls at National Camp, and in D.C. in general.  I also want to let y’all know that Leslie isn’t that bad when she doesn’t have to be the boss.  She’s pretty cool, and I want to thank her and the other directors for giving me the chance to go.

Till Winter Camp,

Davey Elliott  

 

 

Note-able and Quote-able

* Congratulations to Antonio Roseboro on the birth of his daughter this fall.

* Congratulations to Tim Wright on his promotion to Fire Captain!

* There is a 2006 Calendar currently on sale to honor the Williamsburg and James City Count Firefighters.  All proceeds are being donated to CVBC.  The calendar features pictures and information from CVBC.  Some counselor quotes were also included: 

“You never know what an impact you have on a person until you invested in their life for just one week.” J- counselor

“Central Virginia Burn Camp is about burn survivors.  It is about hope, love, and healing. When you’re there it feels like family, and when it’s over you carry away the memory of it like a warm blanket into a cold world.  I only wish that there had been a CVBC when I was growing up.”

K - counselor    

“Everyone here treats me so nice. People don’t get treated this nice anywhere else. It’s like everyone is family here!.”

 T- counselor

 

 

 A very large thank you to all of our friends and supporters for the 2005 camp season:                       
ACBC  - Curtis and Renee Stilwell               
Old Dominion Professional Firefighters Burn Foundation
VA Professional Firefighters               
Norfolk Professional Firefighters        
Suffolk Professional Firefighters–United Way Albemarle Professional Firefighters            
VA Chapter of American Fire Sprinkler Assoc. VA Department of Forestry                   
Central VA Emergency Nurses Assoc.        
Red Knights of Virginia                                   Mr. and Mrs. Howard Summers               
Prince William Professional Firefighters and Recruits                                               
Henrico Professional Firefighters
Chesterfield Professional Firefighters                Hal Lippard, DDS                                
Staunton Women of the Moose                   
Mr. Terrell Brown                                       
Ben Franklin Crafts                                 
Swiss American – Elta Products               
Smith and Nephew - Jobst

Thoughts from Leslie

After so many years of hearing how wonderful National Camp was, I finally agreed to go myself and see what this was all about.  I can pretty much sum up the week with “WOW”!  This was non-stop, amazing activity for an entire week. The campers, counselors and staff that I met were really incredible people.  I had lots of time to share camp information, and while I did get some new ideas, I have to say that I am really proud of our camp! And it WAS nice just being a participant at this camp and NOT being in charge!!

Davey and I flew to Washington DC from Richmond, - it was Davey’s first flight.  The National 4-H Center was comfortable and it quickly became home for a long week.  I think we did a month’s worth of activities in just a week.  We toured every Memorial and Monument, went to several Smithsonian Museums, the Spy Museum, the National Archives, the White House, and had breakfast in, and a very special tour of the Capitol.  I’d never been to Fort Myers before, and we spent time at the stables there.  The horses there pull the Caissons in the funeral processions of Presidents.  We toured Mount Vernon and Davey was selected to lay a wreath on George Washington’s tomb.  Several other campers placed an IAFF wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery during the changing of the guards ceremony.  One of the coolest places we visited was the “Awakening”, this gigantic figure of a man rising from the ground.  Davey was one of the few campers able to scale straight up his leg! It was fun seeing Curtis, Renee, Elton, Kara, Dave and Kerri during the week.

Each day we were handed quizzes, to be filled out throughout the day based on where we were visiting. 

Davey is so smart, he knew all the answers before we even got to where we were supposed to find them.  He also absorbs information like a sponge and quickly realized that when it comes to historical knowledge, I am woefully at a loss.

The last night’s banquet was very emotional, with speeches, testimonies, and songs and not a dry eye in the room.  The dinner was followed by a show,

featuring Johnny Fox, King of Swords, a comedian and sword swallower.  He was very funny and very talented and left us all wondering “how did he do THAT”? 

The last day was spent at National Zoo, and while the baby panda was not out yet, we did get a glimpse of one of the older ones.  Departing proved to be quite difficult for many campers and counselors alike.  There were hugs, tears, and vows to keep in touch, maybe even visit each other’s burn camps in the US and Canada.

This truly was a wonderful opportunity, and I enjoyed being there with Davey. 

To my Camper,

I am honored to have watched you soar above the ashes.

IN the Garden of Paradise, beneath the Tree of Knowledge, bloomed a rose bush. Here, in the first rose, a bird was born. His flight was like the flashing of light, his plumage was beauteous, and his song ravishing. But when Eve plucked the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, when she and Adam were driven from Paradise, there fell from the flaming sword of the cherub a spark into the nest of the bird, which blazed up forthwith. The bird perished in the flames; but from the red egg in the nest there fluttered aloft a new one—the one solitary Phoenix bird.

~ The Phoenix Bird by Hans Christian Andersen (1850)

The Phoenix

I met a Phoenix today,

She flew to me from an unknown way.

Her wings, still smoldering from the fire,

Sprinkled ashes as they carried her with tire.

I met a Phoenix today,

She began to dance and she started to play. 

Her heart, bolted off so tight,

Began to open without a fight.

I met a Phoenix today,

She soon showed me that it would all be okay.

Her spirit, growing more passionate than the rest,

Would surely be able to pass life’s test.

I watched my Phoenix fly away today,

She soared back to that unknown way. 

Her wings, now radiating colorful beams,

Will carry her to achieve all her dreams.

 

By Colleen McCroskey, OTS

CVBC 2005 counselor