The Mighty Ducks

In my first year of working the best job ever as a camp counselor, I had a kid we'll call Danny. He had a syndrome called Prader-Willi Syndrome. He came to camp each year to ride the horses and live life as a normal kid. Only had had to be stopped from eating too much so he wouldn't over eat; had to take shots daily on regular intervals throughout the day so he could live. He would fall asleep during the most inconvenient times, like in the middle of the woods, in the red clay, while it was raining. No joke. But what I remember most was his love for the Mighty Ducks movies. You know, the ones with the young Joshua Jackson. He never could comprehand that we could not do a skit on the Mighty Ducks because the other children voted against it. There were alligator tears that night, then he fell asleep. One night he ate an extra plate of onion rings. (For those of you who don't know, Prader-Willi Syndrome causes the person to possibly eat themselves to death. There is no switch inside of them that says when they are full.) So typically we monitored Danny's food intake. And I guess we didn't see him get his second plate of onion rings that night after dinner. Needless to say, he began to smell quite stinky. So, Paul, our boss, Dennis, our UC, and Blake, my co-counselor, all told Danny to take a shower. Their conclusion was that this poor child had gone to the bathroom in his pants, hence the smell. So once he was in the shower, the boys called into him. "Stay in the shower and do not come out until we tell you to!" So Danny did as told. One of the guys took a large stick and hooked his underpants, needing to check and make sure how bad the track lines were. Needless to say, there were none to be seen. The poor child had gas, and only gas.

Danny passed away a few years later. It was an accident and there was no sadder day than when he passed away. It was the alrgest funeral Henry County, Georgia ever saw, or ever will again for that matter.

There is no point for this story, except for the fact that he is a child I will never forget.

This photo does not include him, as this is a more recent photo of a camping experience I had with some kids in North Carolina. I don't have a photo of Danny, but I still remember him.