LSU Health New Orleans Camp Tiger Benefit Auction is on April 6 from 7 - 11 p.m. at Club XLIV- Champions Square, located on Lasalle Street adjacent to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The event is the major fundraiser supporting the free, week-long summer day camp for children with special needs in the metropolitan New Orleans and Baton Rouge communities.
Camp Tiger is planned, organized, staffed, and funded by the efforts of first-year students at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine. The students’ fund-raising efforts underwrite the cost of the camp, so it remains free to campers and their families. All proceeds go directly to running LSU Health New Orleans Camp Tiger.
For a donation of $65 per person, the evening promises to be full of fun and bargains with food donated by local restaurants including Drago’s, Liuzza’s, Martin Wine Cellar, Omni Royal Orleans, Nothing Bundt Cakes, LA 23 Barbeque, and Bearcat Café, among others. Dance to the music of the Rockenbraughs, whose members include Dr. Dan Nuss, professor and chairman of ENT-Head and Neck Surgery at LSU Health New Orleans. Silent and live auction items will feature trips to Alaska, San Francisco, Argentina, France, Costa Rica, and St. Thomas; original works by local artists such as Terrance Osborne; and restaurant gift certificates, jewelry, signed sports memorabilia, and more.
While adjusting to their first year of medical school, LSU Health New Orleans medical students plan the Camp Tiger Benefit Auction, solicit donations and auction items, book the location, hire the entertainment, set up, staff, and tear down the event. At the same time, they are planning and making all of the arrangements for this year's LSU Health New Orleans Camp Tiger, which will be May 21-25.
LSU Health New Orleans medical students volunteer their time to be counselors and staff for the camp. The ratio of counselors to campers is 2:1. About 130 campers are expected to participate this year. The registration deadline for Camp Tiger 2018 is April 7.
LSU Health New Orleans Camp Tiger was founded in 1985 by first-year students from the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine. Its mission is to give mentally and physically challenged children an enjoyable summer camp experience. For the campers, this may be their only chance to socialize with other children without being singled out for their disabilities. This week-long day camp lets campers be "just one of the kids" and provides them with the freedom to play, socialize, and express themselves as healthy, vibrant children. Since its inception, LSU Health New Orleans Camp Tiger has benefitted more than 2,000 children from the Greater New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas.
Besides continuing the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans tradition of community outreach, Camp Tiger gives first-year and incoming first-year LSU Health New Orleans medical students an opportunity to begin to understand and work with some of the medical conditions they may encounter during their professional careers.
For more information about Camp Tiger and the fundraiser auction, or to purchase tickets, visit www.lsuhsc.edu/orgs/camptiger.