The Self Advocacy Committee is a group of participants with Down syndrome who have been with PALS for some time and who support PALS in a number of ways, including sharing insight and ideas with the staff team to support the future of PALS. As PALS veterans, they also want to make sure that new people joining our community feel welcome and cared for.

from the Self-Advocacy Committee:

Dear PALS Volunteer,

If this is your first experience as a volunteer, you are probably not quite sure what to expect or what is expected of you. As the PALS Self Advocacy Committee, we hope our letter can help you understand what participants with Down syndrome expect of you and how you can work with us at camp to create the best week ever.

We come to camp to try new things, to connect with others with Down syndrome, and to be part of the PALS mission by putting ourselves out there for people without Down syndrome to learn from and with. We have Down syndrome, and we also have a lot of other skills, talents, and life experience that we want to share with you. As a Volunteer, we want you to see your role as working alongside people with Down syndrome, as participating in camp as an equal participant and as someone who gets to experience a week with a group of people who are ready to welcome you with kindness, silliness, and open arms. We are all at camp to help and support each other in building a community that makes sure everyone feels like they have a place where they belong, and that goes for every single person at camp.

And what’s in it for you as a volunteer? Being a volunteer at PALS means opening yourself up to a week of fun, a week of learning, and a week focused on building relationships that will challenge you and change you. You will meet all kinds of people at PALS, many of whom will be completely different from you and whom you’d never have met if it were not for PALS. You should be prepared for “organized chaos” and friendships that will stay with you; take things as they come and don’t try to be in control or too rigid in what you think camp should look like, because it will probably look vastly different from what you ever imagined! And as long as you stay open-minded, focus on connections, and the value each person brings to camp, you will have the best week ever!

And as an organization, we are so grateful for the volunteers who share their time and skills with PALS to make our programs the welcoming communities of belonging that they are. This Volunteer Appreciation Month, we want to thank each and every Volunteer who has participated in a PALS program, and those who will join us for the first time. The world is a better place because of the lessons we all learn at camp, and we can’t wait to see you there!

PALS Love,

The Self Advocacy Committee