“Whenever I’m in the dumps, I come up here, to camp, and it reaffirms everything that I think is really good and generous about this world.”
About the Hole in the Wall Camps
While Paul Newman’s philanthropic interests and donations were wide-ranging, he was especially committed to the thousands of children with life-threatening conditions served by the Hole in the Wall Camps, which he helped start in 1988. Paul saw the Camps as places where kids could escape the fear, pain, and isolation of their conditions, kick back, and “raise a little hell.”
When asked why he started the Hole in the Wall Camps, Paul spoke of luck: “I wanted to acknowledge luck; the chance and benevolence of it in my life, and the brutality of it in the lives of others, who might not be allowed the good fortune of a lifetime to correct it.”
Today, there is an Association of Hole in the Wall Camps - eleven member camps around the world in Connecticut, New York, Florida, California, North Carolina, Ireland, United Kingdom, Hungary, France, Italy, and Israel - with additional programs in Africa and South East Asia and more camps and programs under development. Over 135,000 children have attended a Hole in the Wall Camp free of charge since the first one opened. In 2009, it is anticipated that 17,000 more children will attend camp, another 10,000 will enjoy the magic of camp without leaving the hospital through the Hole in the Wall Hospital Outreach Program, and over 10,400 individuals will volunteer their time.
Laughter is the best medicine.
“The gift of life and living, which you have generously given to each camper fortunate enough to be with you is such a magical gift and will live forever in these children’s dreams.” — Cindy Wofford, parent of a Hole in the Wall camper
To learn more about the Hole in the Wall Camps, please visit:
www.HoleInTheWallCamps.org
“I will never be able to practice medicine the way I did before I came here because when I saw a kid coming through the door he was a patient - now he’s a kid.”
