Hungarian exchange student Tamas Orosz is spending his summer working at Crossroads 4 Kids Camp Wing in Duxbury, Massachusetts (just south of Boston), as a support staffer. In his spare time, Tamas happens to enjoy fixing bikes. Before joining CHI’s Camp Leaders program, Tamas spent a lot of time biking in and around his hometown. When he was young he didn’t have money for repairs, so he taught himself to fix his bicycle on his own. Soon his friends learned of his hard-earned skills and began asking for his help when their bikes needed repairs.
When Tamas started at Camp Wing, he immediately loved it. He describes his arrival as “[falling] in love with the whole thing. The woods, the feeling, the routes and a people’s positive vibes.” Tamas’ dream of traveling to the U.S. had come true. But as Tamas was getting settled, he realized that a lot of the campers didn’t have access to bikes. Certainly being able to bike around the camp would be fun for the kids, so he started examining some of the old broken bicycles that had been set aside. He quickly found that most of them were in decent shape and just needed a bit of work, like new tires or tightened screws. Tamas used his own toolkit that he had brought from home to fix them.
Needless to say, the camp owners were thrilled with Tamas’ efforts, especially since it was his own idea, and he did it just to help others. Each day, thanks to Tamas, more and more kids had bikes to ride. Watching them all have so much fun brought smiles to the faces of every camp staffer. Now, Tamas is able to ride his bike to explore Massachusetts. He’s been to Duxbury Beach, Humarock Beach and Rexhame Beach.
Still, Tamas says his favorite thing is being at camp. “I feel absolutely free here and I enjoy every small thing in camp”, he says. “I love the atmosphere and the positive thinking”. With all he’s done for the camp and its kids, we’re pretty sure that at least part of that great atmosphere and positive thinking is thanks to him.
Thank you, Tamas, for sharing your story and for all that you do for your summer camp kids!
