JA Camp Co-Director

Juvenile Arthritis Camp was held from Jul 15 - 19, 2019 this year. We had around 50 campers and about 30 Volunteer Staff.

Juvenile Arthritis Camp 2019 Campers and Volunteers

This year I had the honor of serving as Co-Camp Director with my mentor Quoc, who has been the Camp Director for the past 5+ years. This would be my 5th year volunteering. I’ve been volunteering with the camp during different phases of my professional career. First starting with my last days as a Registered Nurse, both summers as a Student Nurse Practitioner (NP), then Rookie NP to now with several years as a provider under my belt.

Co-Camp Directors, Quoc Du, NP at Stanford Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Andy A. Nguyen, NP at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. Jul 19, 2019, Livermore, Calif.

FUN FACT: Quoc and I were childhood friends from Portland, both NPs, and of Vietnamese ethnic background. It’s pretty dope to have a brother whom I can not only look up to and learn from, but also do great work alongside.

This would mark the 3rd Dance Therapy Workshop we’ve done at camp, led by myself and my life partner, Gee, who is not pictured. This year was unique. We decided to switch it up a bit and teach New Style Hustle, a partner-social dance, and slid in little messages of consent and breaking gender stereotypes. Whether the messages will be effective or not, who knows, but at least we can try to do our best with whatever means we have to help influence these kids towards the highest human frequencies of acts sponsored by love.

Notes from Gee and Andy’s 2019 JA Dance Therapy Workshop

The reward is witnessing the growth and process of these kids who come back year after year. It is a means for the kids to have fun, discover themselves, and find their positive light. You may also say the same for us volunteers.