Reds pitchers Andrew Abbott and Graham Ashcraft went fishing with children battling heart disease at Camp Joyful Hearts on Tuesday.
Hosted at Camp Joy in Clarksville, Ohio, Camp Joyful Hearts is a weeklong camp for kids from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital who have congenital heart defects, heart transplants and other types of heart disease. Cincinnati Children’s has brought kids to Camp Joy for more than 25 years, with the mission of helping kids find friendship and community with those in similar circumstances.
Abbott and Ashcraft were welcomed by kids as they helped campers set up their fishing poles and demonstrated how to cast and reel.
“It’s always great to see the smiles on their faces and get to enjoy that time with them,” Ashcraft said. “Getting to see them have fun, enjoy the outdoors and get to do stuff that they don’t get to do most of the time, it’s really good.”
Rachel Weismiller, a heart transplant coordinator at Cincinnati Children’s, came with the kids to Camp Joyful Hearts and expressed how excited the kids were to go fishing with Abbott and Ashcraft as well as be with the other campers throughout the week.
“[Camp Joyful Hearts] is their one time to be around children that are like them. It’s amazing to see their strength and resiliency. They go through a lot and they’re here happy, having a good time and loving life,” Weismiller said.
Camp Joyful Hearts allows children, who are often cooped up in their home or hospital room, to experience outdoor activities like fishing, archery, canoeing, water slides and more. With around 80 kids between the ages of 8-19 attending this year’s camp, doctors and nurse practitioners are onsite 24 hours a day throughout the week to help the children with their medication and ensure the children’s safety.
Emily Henkes, the Camp Joy program manager, described how Camp Joy provides the camp experience to many local groups such as underserved youth, children with medical conditions and those with special needs.
“So many of our kids have first-time experiences here, whether they’ve just never had access to a pond or they’ve never hiked before.”
After working one-on-one with the kids throughout the morning, the group only caught one fish, but the day was about more than just fishing.
“It brings me back to when I was a kid, learning from my dad,” Abbott said. “It all comes back to getting their focus away from what they are going through for an hour or so. You can see the excitement and, [fishing] is not much, but it means a lot to them, so it means a lot to us.”