NICEVILLE — Nicholas Gestring helped put a harness onto a horse’s muzzle Tuesday at Camp Timpoochee. The day before on the first day of the weeklong summer camp, he played Space Race, a game similar to capture the flag. He also snorkeled in Choctawhatchee Bay.
“I’ve had a great time so far, and it’s only Tuesday,” the 13-year-old from Bluewater Bay said.
Nicholas’ father was injured by a grenade in 2011 during a deployment with the Air Force in Afghanistan.
This week the young boy is attending Camp Corral, a free summer camp for children whose parents were wounded or killed while serving in the military. About 60 kids from across the country enrolled this year, the first time the camp has been held in Niceville.
“They get to meet kids who are in the same or a similar situation and can relate to them,” said Jennifer Williams, director of the 4-H Camp Timpoochee. “These are kids who have a family member who came back from overseas and may have lost a limb or be disabled completely or have fallen in combat and not come home at all. The parent may come back differently than when they left, and there can be a period of adjustment for these kids. The camp is a vacation from all this. They get to come out and just have a good time.”
Nicholas’ father was awarded the Purple Heart for his actions the day he was injured. Despite shrapnel in his leg, he was helped save a number of others who also were wounded, Nicholas said.
It was the ninth month of his dad’s nearly yearlong deployment, the first in his more than 20-year career.
Nicholas said he is proud of his father and that he wants to join the Air Force and become a pilot.
The injury did change his dad in some ways, he said. He has to wear hearing aids and has some back problems. He no longer enjoys fireworks shows because it makes him jumpy, Nicholas said.
He said not all his friends understand what his dad went through and what that means for his family, but they try.
“They kind of understand, but it’s not exactly,” he said. “They don’t live with him and their parents aren’t in the military.”
He has met another boy at Camp Corral whose father lost a hand in an improvised bomb explosion in Afghanistan.
Nicholas’ sister also is attending the camp.
Golden Corral restaurants started Camp Corral two years ago to support military families. The corporation raised more than $1.5 million last year to help send youths between the ages of 8 and 15 to camps across the country this year.
Priority is given to children whose parents were injured or killed in action, but campers whose parents have been on long or continuous deployments also are eligible.
For most of the kids, it is their first time at a summer camp.
"I especially liked the snorkeling because we got to see a lot of the creatures," said Skyy Corral, who lives near Eglin Air Force Base.
She spotted a mullet, a lot of hermit crabs and even a sea horse.
Her mother served in the Army until her retirement and had been deployed often. She now works at Eglin.
This is Skyy's first summer camp, and she had quickly learned the habits of her cabin mates: the organized one, the clean one and the ones who wanted to stay active like her.
Eleven-year-old Victoria George lives in Shalimar. Her father was deployed often with the military, sometimes for a year or two at a time before he retired, she said after firing an air rifle for the first time. Her three sisters also are attending the camp.
Other kids, some from as far away as Illinois, were paddling kayaks in the bay Tuesday.
“It’s been really great, kind of touching, meeting all the different kids and hearing their different stories,” said Ryan Floyd, a 17-year-old camp counselor.
His older brother died when he was young, which he said gives him some insight into what some of the kids may be going through.
“It’s nice to know we are able to do something for them,” he said. “The kids, they seem to love it. I haven’t seen a frown yet.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Lauren Sage Reinlie at 850-315-4443 or lreinlie@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @LaurenRnwfdn.