A summer day at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp is typical in most ways. Canoeing, fishing and horseback riding are popular activities. But this camp is home to what may be the world’s largest wheelchair-accessible tree house and an infirmary, dubbed the “OK Corral,” providing round-the-clock care.
Such measures are necessary because the kids who come to this camp in northeastern Connecticut have special needs: Hole in the Wall is exclusively for children with cancer, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, AIDS and other potentially life-threatening illnesses.
Jimmy Canton began working at the camp after graduation and has been there since. Now in his third year as executive director, Canton knows the pleasure of watching a long-term patient remember how to be a child again.
“Our kids have been ostracized, they’ve been deprived of acting like regular kids,” he says. “Here, they get to have water fights and pudding-eating contests and they go fishing for the first time in their lives. It’s absolute joy.”
While blending medical care with camp activities is difficult, the staff goes to extra lengths to include every child in every activity. The pool is heated to 90 degrees so that sickle cell sufferers (who need to remain warm to avoid blood vessel constriction) can go swimming. If campers get cold, they can step into a heating hut known as the “French Fry Warmer.”
As Canton puts it, “If we’ve excluded a child, we’ve not done our jobs right.”
Paul Newman founded the nonprofit residential summer camp in 1988 and provided much of the seed money. Now the camp relies almost entirely on individual donations; more than 1,000 campers, ages 7 to 15, enjoy their six- to eight-day stay free of charge. Part of Canton’s job is to secure the funding to keep it that way.
Canton started out working summers as a cabin counselor (each cabin has six campers) and quickly moved up to unit leader (supervising three cabins). In 1994, he was promoted to camp director, a year-round position. For eight years, he was responsible for the 120 children attending each of nine summer sessions.
“Jimmy has been my inspiration for years and years,” says Wendy Cook, ’89, who came to Hole in the Wall as a counselor in 1990 on Canton’s recommendation. “He’s a man who has a unique and profound ability to connect with people. If I were dying, I would want him by my side.”
Cook, who is now medical director at The Painted Turtle, a sister camp an hour north of Los Angeles, was impressed by Canton’s leadership during her four summers at Hole in the Wall. “But at the same time,” she says, “he can be really goofy and can get up on stage and get everybody peeing-in-their-pants laughing.”
Canton considered a career on Wall Street and then almost landed at the State Department after graduation. He has no regrets about the path he took, however. “When you’re in an environment that reminds you of your mortality, you’re reminded about what’s more important in life,” he says. “You love hard and you play hard. We see these children [in better health] than many of their families see them because they’re so alive and so happy.”
—Barrett Sheridan, ’06
