Fourteen-year-old Earl Gardner spent his Sunday morning learning the ins and outs of a fire truck.
“Does that thing move?” Gardner asked, pointing to the ladder on top of the truck.
“Yes, it does, actually,” answered Edward Evans, a driver operator for Gainesville Fire Rescue.
Evans pointed to the top of the truck.
“That right there oscillates ... and we can control that from right there,” he said.
Gardner gazed at the ceiling as if he were imagining the ladder at full extension.
“It’s fun,” Evans said with a grin.
Gardner was one of 42 children headed for Camp Amigo, a camp for North Central Florida burn survivors between the ages of 6 and 18.
Some of the children, like Gardner, stopped at Fire Station 2 on Southwest Archer Road on Sunday morning to await a charter bus that would carry them to their destination: the Billy Jo Rish State Park in the panhandle.
Joyce Welch, the Gainesville coordinator for Camp Amigo, said the camp experience builds confidence and self-esteem in the children.
“They get a chance to see other kids that have been burned,” Welch said. “It’s just a real eye-opener for them.”
Gardner, who was burned as a first grader in 2007, has attended Camp Amigo for the past four years.
He said he’s kept in contact with three friends since last year’s camp and is excited to see them.
The camp provides a place to spend time with other children who have been through similar situations, said Tracey Higdon, the president of Gainesville Professional Firefighters International Association of Fire Fighters Local 2157.
“It’s nice to see something positive come from something that can be so traumatic,” he said. “Some of these kids have scars, and when you go to a regular school, sometimes kids are mean. And for this week, they don’t have to worry about that.”
