Summer Nurse Spotlight: Nalini Patel

Here at Camp ASCCA, our wonderful nursing staff works hard to make sure campers remain happy and healthy during their stay. This week, we have a special addition to our nursing staff. Nurse Nalini Patel will be a guest nurse during Session 2.

Nalini received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from The University of Alabama at Birmingham. When she is not at Camp, she is a nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at UAB Hospital.

This week is extra special for her because she gets to experience Camp with her son Darsh. Darsh is one of our beloved campers, and he has attended Camp annually for the past 15 years. Nalini first heard about Camp ASCCA from Darsh’s sixth grade speech therapist.

“Darsh’s speech therapist was a counselor at Camp ASCCA when she was in college,” Nalini says, “she encouraged us to check it out, so I made a promise to her that I would.”

She never backs down from a promise, so Nalini and her family took a trip from Birmingham to Jacksons Gap to get a tour of Camp ASCCA.

“As the mother of an eleven-year-old, I was terrified at the idea of leaving my son somewhere for five days without my supervision,” Nalini says when discussing her initial thoughts about sending her son to Camp. “Once we got a tour of the campsite and met the staff, we knew Darsh would be in good hands. That day, I immediately fell in love and made the decision to send Darsh to Camp.” Since then, Darsh has attended Camp on a regular basis.

Nalini is so excited to be apart of Camp this week because she gets the opportunity to watch Darsh experience all of his favorite things.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that Darsh doesn’t talk about the zipline at Camp. Getting to see his face light up while doing things he loves is absolutely amazing,” Nalini says when discussing how excited she is to be with her son for the week.

We are so happy to have Darsh and Nalini at Camp for Session 2! To see more pictures of Nurse Nalini and her son Darsh, click here.