Since Il Bisonte was created, it has been committed to offering gestures of social solidarity, which include encouraging often marginalized people, especially local ones, to be more involved. The latest of these gestures is a gift to Dynamo Foundation’s Dynamo Camp of two thousand soft toys -“Bisontini” made in collaboration with the renowned Trudi brand. In this segment of the Journal we paid Dynamo Camp a visit.
Our short interview begins with the Pistoia Apennines as a backdrop. In order to get to know our hosts we ask: what is Dynamo Camp and what does it do? What are the words you’d highlight in your presentation?
There would be so many words, but really we should ask the children, which is what we did when we transcribed their natural impressions on our site. Let’s say: Care, the Environment and Children. Dynamo Camp is located in the mountains in the Pistoia province, on an oasis of 900 hectares affiliated with WWF. Here we offer, together with their families, free recreational therapies to children between the ages of 6 and 17 who have serious or chronic diseases. Most recently we opened the program to minors and mothers suffering social hardship. We try to support everyone’s right to happiness. Basically: we play with a purpose.
Dynamo Camp is part of the global network of Serious Fun, but it is essentially a Dynamo Foundation project. It is modeled after Venture Philanthropy. In your experience, what are the possible links between For-profits and Non-profits?
Serious Fun has put on many camps throughout the world, and Dynamo has incorporated its ambitions as well as its results. A Yale University study has quantified the positive effects camps have on our patients’ maturity and self-esteem. Powering this happiness is volunteering and private financing: not only those donations inspired by trust in our project, but the same creativity in investments and the same responsiveness to one’s own context that characterizes the business world.
This leads us, in fact, to raise one final important question: what part does the environment play in the therapies you offer?
To put it briefly, the Apennines are a cure. Our operators’ skills can be put to use in a place that is itself an actor in the therapy. For example, in the therapies involving animals, on the climbing trails or in the Dynamo Gardens, children are invited to engage with nature which allows them to discover and shape the environment within themselves.