Jack O'Drain Memorial Fund 2023-2024

In memory and honor of our son, we are raising money to benefit YMCA Camp Ockanickon, Inc, and any donation will help memorialize his legacy and help other boys and girls experience this incredible program. Thanks in advance for contributing to this cause that means so much to him and to our family.

Jack's story -

Our son Jack had asked us about going to camp Ockanickon in late spring of 2021. His best friend had gone to this sleepaway camp for a couple years already and had loved it.

My wife and I had always looked at summer as a time when school was out, and we could reconnect as a family, head down the shore, go on a vacation together. Jack had never been away from home more than one night, let alone at sleepaway camp for two weeks! On top of it all, he really wanted to attend the session that would overlap his upcoming 13th birthday. Our son would be away at camp when he became a teenager.

Jack kept at it, and our family attended a camp information session. My wife, Jack, his younger sister and I all went. We were given a tour with one of the counselors, and we saw how amazing this experience was going to be. We hit the rainbow bridge, the cabins, the dining hall, and saw how beautiful this camp was. We heard about the Ocky Character Universe, the emblem that each camper was to work on, the Ocky Block that had to be found, and accolades to work toward, like the Golden Toilet Bowl – awarded to those campers with the tidiest cabin. Our only reservation had been that Jack had a heart arrythmia, and needed to take medication at certain times of the day. We were shown the nurse’s cabin, and were reassured how well our son would be taken care of. We signed Jack up for camp that day.

The two-week session came, and we dropped our son off. We never did figure out the online message system that well. But we were able to see the pictures that came through. As hard as it was to not speak to our son during that time, we were happy he was experiencing it all.

I was at work the day that his two-week session came to an end. I left a bit early, and my wife, my father and daughter had already picked him up. When I made it home and pulled into the driveway, I saw Jack pacing back and forth, waiting for me to get out of the car. He ran up and we hugged… and he literally exploded with excitement. He went on to explain every single detail. The activities, the songs and chants, each of his campmates and each of the counselors, the food, the competitions and events… as he went on and on and I felt this incredible tangible change that had happened within him. He was different. It was as if he had grown up more, and was just exuding confidence and settlement. A new energy. He told me the story of how he was homesick the first two days, and how he finally overcame his fears and things changed, and he saw how to embrace every moment at camp.

I looked at him and all the while, he was holding a huge blue feather. I said what is that, Jack? And he told me about how he had been presented the Legendary Character Award and explained every detail of the ceremony and how he was chosen as the recipient. I saw the level of pride and accomplishment in him, and I only just began to understand how much he had taken away from his two weeks at Camp Ockanickon.

When he went into 8th grade that September, Jack’s Language Arts teacher had the students write in a journal multiple times a week. He was asked to write about how, as we mature, our attitudes change. I’d like to share with you what he wrote:

“Throughout my life, I have always done things contradicting my full potential. Either I have taken too long, or I didn’t check my work for mistakes. Before, I didn’t try my best - but this year is different. This year I will try my best, like so many of my classmates and friends. Because of this sudden change of heart, my life will change indefinitely. Whatever I didn’t do before, doesn’t matter - for now I am a changed man and I have one event to thank for that.

This change happened when I was at summer camp. Camp Ockanickon was fun, but there was one outlier among the experience. When I first saw the rock wall, my heart stopped. There were sixty feet of rock wall for me to climb. This was horrifying, because not even the tallest trees in that part of the pine barrens could compare to that thing. Soon after I stopped staring at it, I went for the bench. All of my friends that I had made through that time were scaling the mighty wall or waiting in line. The rock wall was going to end my fun for that day.

No, no this wasn’t going to stop me from having fun. I was going to try to accomplish my goal. I made it to about a quarter of the way up, and that’s when I looked down. I kept trying, but my foe had overcome me. It didn’t work out. I called the beller to let me down and she did. That entire day I was put down. That same spirit filled me again, and I resolved if I had a chance to finish it, I would take it. That chance came, and boy was I happy. The next day, I sprinted right to the beller, and began to climb the rock wall. This was a difficult task. And the same thing happened again. I looked down and fear filled my body. My arms and legs turned to noodles and I thought it was over… but that strange energy filled me once more. Even though it was scaring me, I did it and completed my goal, shaking. I sat there in front of the zip line, pondering what I had just done. It was the guy up there that brought me back to reality. “So? Are we going to do this?” he said. “Yeah,” I responded. He took off the belling line, yelled a few things, connected me to the zipline. My legs were hanging off now. I looked out and I was above the tallest trees in the Pine Barrens.

This was my choice. I could stop it now, but I wouldn’t collect my reward for my amazing feat. As I dropped, the same fear that once filled me came back. But once it caught, and I was zipping away it melted into joy. The rest of the summer was amazing, and I would like this year to be like that. If the rest of the year could be like that, it’ll be the best school year I’ve had in a while.”

Jack loved his camp experience. And the rest of the Fall he talked about how he was so looking forward to coming back the next year for the same session.

On New Year’s Eve 2021-2022, about an hour after the ball had dropped, Jack was out in our cul de sac, playing laser tag with his best friend, the one that had introduced him to camp, as well as a few other friends from the neighborhood. At some point, Jack’s heart electrically stopped, and he went into cardiac arrest. By the time everyone figured out what was happening, he was given CPR, defibrillated by the EMS, and transported to CHOP. He spent a few days on life support, and passed away on January 4th of this year.

Our family is still learning to live, carrying the grief of the loss of our son Jack. Shortly after he passed, we had received a nice note from one of the counselors from Jack’s village at camp. He said “I’m so sorry and saddened to hear about Jack’s passing. He was an amazing young man and I’m honored to have been able to have had him as a camper. No one was more deserving of the Blue Feather Award and I was looking forward to seeing him in future years at camp. He always had a positive attitude and was always ready to help out even when it wasn’t asked of him. My deepest condolences to you and your family.”

At the Voorhees Middle School 8th grade graduation in June 0f 2022, the Jack O’Drain Memorial Award was created. A small committee at the school along with my wife and I, selected a graduating student that showed Jack’s qualities – kindness, selflessness, caring for others, as well as a love of nature and the outdoors. The award was presented at the graduation ceremony, which also included a scholarship that our family sponsored, to attend any one- or two-week sleepaway camp session of the recipient’s choice to Camp Ockanickon or Matollionoquay for that summer.

We believe that our son Jack would love for us to support this amazing organization and to give the gift of this camp experience, in his memory.