SALEM, Va. – For 40 years, one summer camp in Salem has helped children with developmental delays prepare for kindergarten, while changing the lives of the teenagers who volunteer alongside them.
What started with just 11 children in the early 1980s has grown into a tradition that’s now touched generations.
Founder Tommy Barber says the idea came from a Galax speech pathologist, who worried some of her young students would lose the progress they’d made over the summer.
“She said, ‘Well, I can’t handle all these 11.’ I said, ‘Well, let’s go get some teenagers and be their buddies,’” Barber said.
More than four decades later, that one idea has grown into Jill’s Buddy Camp - where children with developmental delays and other risk factors spend a week building skills, confidence, and friendships before kindergarten.
“From day one to the last day, just to see that improvement of the connection each day, it fulfils me,” Buddy Katherine Gibson said.
But just as important as the children are the high school students who stand beside them.
Macy and Katherine Gibson are on their fourth and final buddy camp.
“Even though we do take the time out of our summer, it’s very much time that we don’t mind because we know how much we’re helping these kids out,” Macy said.
Barber says that the connection often lasts far beyond camp.
Many former buddies have gone on to become teachers, speech pathologists, and special education professionals.
“We have all these buddies that have gone on to college and come back and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to be in special ed as a teacher, oh, by the way, I’m going to be a speech pathologist,’” Barber said.
One of those buddies was Jill Bailey Chenet.
After she passed away in 2012, Barber renamed the program in her honor.
“Knowing that she would be remembered and honored in that way was just a great gift,” Jill’s sister, Julie Hamilton, said.
Now, every summer Julie returns to Salem to help with camp.
Hamilton says she still sees a piece of her sister in every new generation of buddies.
“You just see someone who has the personality, who wants to give back, who has the patience to work with these kids, and a lot of them need that extra patience and that extra love,” Hamilton said.