Camp Silvercloud, a camp for children with special needs, was held Monday and Tuesday at Warner-Tully Memorial YMCA Camp and sponsored by the Junior Auxiliary of Vicksburg.

“This year we have an Olympic theme for camp activities,” said Dara Hendrix, Camp Silvercloud project chair. “We are going to incorporate the theme into the arts and crafts projects and have Olympic-style relay races.”

This year the camp had 40 student volunteer counselors, 25 campers, 11 Junior Auxiliary members and eight kitchen volunteers. To continue the theme, auxiliary members wore white, counselors wore red and campers wore blue T-shirts during their time at Warner-Tully.

Hendrix said this day or overnight option camp gives children with special needs a chance to experience camp life with specialized attention because each camper is paired with a counselor. She was proud of all the volunteers and their dedication.

“It’s just amazing to see how the counselors interact with the campers, how genuinely they care about them. It ultimately changes all of us for the good,” Hendrix said.

Paxton Austin, a student at Mississippi State University, has volunteered for the past five years, and Jacob Breeden, a student at Hinds Community College, has been a volunteer for six years.

“(I like) getting to see the smiles on the kids faces when you get to complete an art project, you get to go canoeing, or they hit the target with the bow and arrow,” Austin said.

Breeden said the camp is important because for many of the campers, it is the highlight of their summer since they usually don’t get to go to other camps.

“[It’s] something to look forward to,” Breeden said.

His favorite activity of the camp is the talent show held on the last day where the campers show off their singing and dancing abilities.

Austin loves the yearly water carnival where counselors and campers have a water war by spraying each other with water and throwing water balloons.

“Even the counselors are running around with huge smiles on their faces just pretty much getting to act like kids,” Austin said.

Camper Matthew Grogan has attended the camp for years and said he keeps coming back because he likes being there.

“It’s nice and fun, and Justin’s my best friend and I get to see him,” Grogan said of his counselor Justin Ehrgott, a senior at St. Aloysius, who has been volunteering for six years.

“I just enjoy the experience and helping out the kids,” Ehrgott said.

First year camper Jamie Thompson, 11, was having a great time hula hooping with counselor Annabeth Breeden Tuesday just before she went swimming.

Thompson collected 14 gold rocks, the most of any camper, Tuesday morning after everyone woke up and left their cabins to discover the rocks scattered across the camp.

“There were around over at where our hut is and I collected them,” she said. “I went out to find my hat, and I found some around it.”

Thompson liked going fast in the canoes and singing for the talent show, but she couldn’t pick a favorite activity because she enjoyed them all.

She said she plans to come back next year.

“I had bunches of fun,” she said.