Variety, The Children's Charity: Serving the Delaware Valley Region

How We Met Variety by Carla Faker

Carla with her two sons, Alex and Ryan

When my sons and I visited Variety Club’s Camp for the first time, we did not know what to expect.  We were attending the camp’s Easter Egg Hunt and we wanted to learn more about the camp’s programs and services.  Who would have thought that a day of fun would have led to us finding so many friends who we consider family.

We have made more friends at Variety’s Camp than anywhere else, because the camp is like its own community in Worcester, PA.   Through Variety, we’ve discovered a part of the world many in the "outside, normal" world never gets to meet, which is really sad.  Variety’s camp provides recreational, educational and learning programs for children with disabilities and each child is special and unique.  In the outside world we may have to overcome our challenges as individuals but at Variety, we do it together, as a family, encouraging each other, teaching each other, growing alongside each other.   

My kids and I have been with Variety for the last six-plus years.  Thanks to Variety, we go swimming, we play basketball, we dance, we play games, we make things, and we learn things.  Along with our extended Variety family, we laugh, we cry, we hug.  We share great experiences and have many memories of our times together.  Who can forget the Christmas party where Santa was late because he got stuck at his other job?  (Working at the North Pole, of course!)  Or the Variety Club Camp Talent show?  Or all the wonderful years at the Annie Madden Sunshine Games?  

My Variety family also helps to ensure my kids can attend events whenever possible.  My youngest son wasn’t scheduled to attend camp during the Madden Games this year, but I asked if he could be there, just because it would break his heart (and mine) to miss it.  They welcomed Alex and were happy to see him join in the fun, and I was delighted to watch him cut loose and be a real kid whose differences blended into the differences of the kids around him.  Their differences are what give each of them a common bond.

As for me, I don’t know where I’d be without the Variety Autism Parent Network.  We’re not just friends supporting each other; we’re sisters and brothers with a bond that goes deeper than blood.  We get together not just to listen to each other’s problems but to help solve them.  We’ve all been in the same boat.  Once in a while one of us falls overboard, which is so easy to do when the crazy waves of the world around us knocks us off balance, but  we’re each other’s lifelines, and in turn we do the best we can to reach out to those in need offering any help we can provide.

I have a couple of albums full of photographs from all the good times we’ve had at Variety Club.  Each picture is a moment in time, a chance to look back at the joy of being with friends and feeling accepted.  I’ve watched my kids grow up at Variety, and I’m grateful to Variety for giving my boys those joyful memories that they’ll carry with them their whole lives.

One Saturday afternoon in April, my sons and I came to Variety for an Easter Egg Hunt, but we found so much more than eggs.  We found a family.

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