Build America is part of Push America, Pi Kappa Phi’s non-profit organization dedicated to helping people with disabilities.
Fraternity members spent their fourth week of the 2012 Build America trip at Camp Allyn in Batavia helping build outdoor activity stations for disabled campers.
“Having Push America here is fabulous,” Jan Lippman, coordinator of recreation and leisure of overnight camps at Camp Allyn, said. “They are always professional, engaged and responsive to our campers.”
Lippman said having the fraternity members there interacting with campers brings great energy to camp and is a nice mid-summer pick-me-up for campers.
Seventeen Pi Kappa Phi members spent several days at Camp Allyn constructing a variety of outdoor recreation areas for campers.
Zach Wiles, a University of Cincinnati student who is from Cleveland, said they are helping build a six-stage playground with different “sensory stations” for campers.
“There are different stations on the trail,” Wiles said.
He said there is a push-pull station where campers can push and pull punching bags, a sandbox station where campers can play in the sand, a merry-go-round station, a jungle gym and more.
“We started by clearing debris,” Wiles said about the project. “The second day we broke into teams and figured out projects that were a priority.”
Wiles said they wanted to complete the most labor intensive tasks first, so the things they couldn’t get to would be easier for camp staff or other volunteers to complete.
The fraternity members built several structures at the various stations, installed equipment and completed concrete work.
Wiles said the projects vary from camp to camp, and at each location there are new campers and new staff to work with.
Wiles said they began the trip in Colorado and then traveled to Iowa, Missouri and now Ohio.
He said the fraternity members who are part of Build America this year met in Colorado and come from all across the United States. Many didn’t know one another before they arrived, but Wiles said they quickly develop a team relationship.
Wiles said they generally work from morning to afternoon and then in the evening they get to have dinner and hang out with the campers.
“We build stuff but that’s not what we’re most excited about,” Wiles said. “It’s seeing the smiles on the faces of the campers. That’s why I do it. I wanted to be part of something that helps them.”
Zachary Hornberger, a Miami University student who is from Oxford, Ohio, said he joined the fraternity because his chapter was very involved with Push America.
He said the experience of being a part of Build America is something that is hard to describe.
“It’s awesome not even to make someone’s day, but make someone’s year,” Hornberger said. “To let them be whatever they want to be.”
Hornberger said seeing the campers having nothing holding them back is what it is all about.
“The projects are the physical legacy we leave behind, but the reason we are here is the campers,” Hornberger said.
Wiles said after they leave Camp Allyn they will head to Camp Joy in Clarksville, Ohio. From there they will be headed east and will finish the trip in Washington D.C.
For more information about Build America or Push America visit www.pushamerica.org. For more information about Campy Allyn visit www.steppingstonesohio.org.