Luke Wilson, Ana Villafañe & Jimmy Canton | The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp

0:07Welcome to the Talks at Google podcast, where great minds meet. I'm Emma, bringing you this episode with Luke Wilson, Anna Villafanye, and Jimmy Canton. Talks at Google brings the world's most influential thinkers, creators, makers, and doers all to one place. You can watch every episode at youtube.com slash talks at Google. The Hole in the Wall gang camp was founded in 1988 by legendary actor and philanthropist Paul Newman. The camp is a haven for children with serious illnesses and their families, fostering joy, hope, and friendship through both summer camp and year-round programming. Jimmy Canton, Ana Villafonye, and Luke Wilson all join Google to talk about the Hole in the Wall game camp and its mission.

0:57Jimmy is its CEO and has been with the organization since its founding. Rising from counselor to CEO, he grew the camp from serving 288 children in its first summer to over 20 ,000 children and family members annually. Ana Villafanye is a board member for the camp and a Broadway actress. She recently starred opposite Holland Taylor in the world premiere of N.A. at Lincoln Center and plays the title character in the upcoming feature film Castro's Daughter. Luke Wilson is an advocate for the camp and an actor, writer, and director. He's collaborated with Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson on films like Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.

1:40And he's known for iconic comedies like Legally Blonde and Old School. Recently, he's starred in films like 12 Mighty Orphans, You Gotta Believe, Kevin Costner's Horizon, and the Netflix series No Good Deed. Here are Jimmy Canton, Anna Villafonye, and Luke Wilson, The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp.

2:10So let's kick it off. The Hole in the Wall gig was founded by Paul Newman in 1988. Can you share a little bit about the original vision of the camp and kind of how the spirit continues on today through what was founded in 1988? I'd love to. so there's this famous quote that Paul shared about the motivation to start camp and it goes, I wanted to acknowledge luck the benevolence of it in my life and the brutality of it in the lives of others made especially savage for children who may not be afforded a long life to make up for their bad luck and he was a remarkable man and was keenly aware of being in the right place at the right time and how fortunate he was.

3:00And so Hole in the Wall was his way to pay it forward and recognize that the children that we're so lucky to serve have been dealt a really challenging hand. And so he wanted to level the playing field for these children with cancer, sickle cell, HIV, rare diseases, metabolic mitochondrial disease. They get all their treatments at the camp. We have an infirmary of doctors and nurses. They get chemotherapy, oral chemo, blood transfusions, infusions. And he wanted to just level the playing field and allow them to forget about their illness for a moment and get in touch with being a child again. and, in his words, raised a little hell.

3:50And he was a really mischievous guy. And it worked so much better than he ever imagined. It started in 1988. And I think what none of us, and I was lucky to be a counselor that first summer, what none of us realized was how profoundly healing it would be for a child to be surrounded by a hundred other children who looked like them and who were truly walking their walk. And a lot of hell was raised. But that sense of connection and to look around and realize I'm not the only one and look, they're doing well, or look, they have it so much harder, just was healing and centering. And so that community and that play is what Paul referred to as a different kind of healing.

4:48And so we've continued to grow programming over the last 38 years. We started with 288 children. This year we'll serve thousands of children and family members, nearly 50 ,000 healing experiences this year alone, serving children from Boston down to Washington, D.C. And whatever we can do to create that sense of community allows our children and their family members to realize that they're not alone. And that goes a long way in contributing to their healing. So, Eni, can you talk a little bit, you had camp experience as a child, and so a little bit about how your camp experience almost was part of a formative part of what you do now as an advocate?

5:36So I was a camper myself. The camp has expanded to have a network even further than this region. And so I went in Florida to Boggy Creek. And I remember just it gives you this sense of, you know, in a classroom or even at home when you have a serious illness as a child, you feel really isolated and you feel like an alien and you feel like you can't really relate. you know I couldn't relate to my peers or my siblings and so camp did provide this like magic where suddenly I had a place to belong which like I think any group needs a place to belong and people in general need a place where they feel that they belong in order to feel empowered in order to find out who they are in order to feel like they can add something to the world And I think that the pipeline from camp and performing at camp and just being a normal kid at camp to becoming an actress was 100 % related.

6:40You know, I definitely count it as a part of what gave me a sense of self and a sense of identity, let alone a sense of I have something to add to the world. How do you think about that now as you join the board? Like how much of that comes to the current life? I think it's really surreal that, you know, even moments like this, and even when I first met Jimmy, and the rest of the team and the rest of the board, it's really surreal for me. Because, again, going back to that sense of feeling empowered, it's like the least I could possibly do is try to give that same experience to other kids, because I know exactly what it's like, you know, and I think that like my packaging doesn't scream, Oh, I was a kid with a serious illness that went to this camp.

7:32So I also kind of like love that because I think more and more not letting the assumption of what somebody is going through dictate the way that you treat them or the way that you see them or the way that they see themselves as part of society is hugely important, maybe more than ever. So, Luke, you've been a longtime supporter and advocate for the program. How do you see Paul's kind of legacy alive in the camp from the outside looking in at times? Well, I mean, kind of getting back to what Jimmy said, that was always one of the most incredible things about when I first went to the camp and meeting the kids and seeing the counselors as I was kind of wandering around and went to the back of the theater.

8:15And I read that quote that was up on the wall about the benevolence of luck and how he felt he'd had so much in his life and then the brutality of it in others. And that always really stuck with me, that quote. I mean, I took a picture of it and written it down just to remember it. But in terms of Paul's legacy, you know, for me, obviously just started as a fan of his movies and, you know, things like HUD and The Hustler and, you know, The Color of Money and The Verdict. You know, he was almost kind of, to me, getting better as he was getting older. And then, you know, He would have been around 60 or 61 when he got the idea for the camp.

9:00And, I mean, he had had this friend named Bruce Falconer who was an architect in Connecticut, and he died at 52. And, you know, Paul had just thinking to himself, gosh, this is so terrible how this happened. And then that led him to think, well, what about, you know, someone who's eight or 10 or 12 years old who never got to have the life that Bruce did or get to be an architect or have a job or start a family? What about that? And that's one of the things that I think had led him to the idea of the camp. So to me, in terms of his legacy, I mean, it's pretty incredible that what he's done could make all those classic movies seem like, OK, those movies are great, but this is really something.

9:44At least that's how it seems to me. And just kind of an incredible guy. There's a really good book about him that came out through his family called The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man that came from these recordings he'd made. And I mean, I wrote down a couple of them. But just there's a great quote about him from John Houston just saying what a good person he is. Very talented, but also very ethical. And I think, you know, that he was someone who had struggles in his own life and struggles with his family where he had lost a child. And that somehow he found it in himself to follow through on a great idea.

10:27I mean, I think we can all identify with having a great idea, but the follow through that it takes. And then also, you know, excuse me, somebody like Paul, I'm sure, you know, this is before the day when people did commercials and things like that. And, you know, he came from like the school of like, you know, Marlon Brando and, you know, Jack Nicholson, where, you know, maybe Steve McQueen did a Honda commercial in Japan. But, you know, for Paul to kind of put his money on, you know, excuse me, put his face on lemonade and popcorn and salad dressing and then go have to ask for money from different people and going to, you know, Anheuser -Busch to get the$800 ,000 to build the incredible dining hall they have there.

11:12And then he wrote a great letter to Anheuser-Busch saying he did the numbers. And based on when he started drinking beer at 18, he'd had over 200 ,000 cans of Budweiser. And then it actually worked out to a pretty good deal for them. And with Paul, he used to come to camp and walk around camp. The only food fight we ever had at camp was started by Paul. and he was so you could just see the wonder on his face when he would walk around that it was so much more than he ever expected it to be and the joy is off the hook and um and there's and camper's not knowing who he was where he he loves that too there's a great picture of him you know in the dining hall where a kid's talking to him and paul has an expression that You've never seen on him in any other photograph where he just seems totally open.

12:07He's Uncle Paul. And there are random shots, pictures of Paul in every cabin. And so we suggest that Uncle Paul is always around. But there's a very funny quick story. He was sitting at a table with some campers, and the Newman's own lemonade carton was on the table. And so this child was looking at the picture of him and looking at him and looking at the picture. and he finally said, mister, are you lost? Yeah, a true story, true story. So Luke, you mentioned the architect and design being a piece of this. So Jimmy, can you speak a little bit about how the camp was actually designed to kind of really spark some of that innovation and be centered around the children?

12:52Yeah, and the flavor of it is from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, right? So it's a traditional Western town, but everything needs to be wheelchair accessible. And we need to anticipate on the campus, in the infirmary, with the counselors, what are the physical needs of each child coming in. And they all differ. So how are you thinking ahead to make sure that every child is included? If we as a staff fail to anticipate that and a child feels excluded, then we as a staff have failed. So it's got to be, and this was back in 1988, how do we include every single child? So the campus, our pool is heated to 90 degrees throughout the summer.

13:47In the middle of August in Connecticut when it's 100, that pool is 90 degrees. And that's so that children with sickle cell can swim for the first time in their lives. And our horse barn has a ramp for children in wheelchairs to be able to get them on with special saddles that'll hold them up tight. And the number of walkers all around those horses needs to be a certain amount because of perhaps the body weakness. Our climbing tower has to have assisted belays so that a child who's had a stroke or a child who has had an amputation can climb the tower with whatever part of their body has strength.

14:31And then the other part of their body is compensated with the counselor who can help them ascend to where they can grasp with their strong limbs again. So everything around the camp has to anticipate some physical challenge. And it's such a happy place because you can see that when those children are included in things that they've never thought that they could do, there's not only a deep joy, but there's a spark of, I can do that. and capability is fed, right? So possibility is fed. I have to say, how tall is the tower or Aspen? 40. I think it's about 40 feet high. Okay, so imagine, if you will, in your mind's eye, I'm there in May, and we were doing a family weekend, and my boyfriend and I, we were just kind of observing, right?

15:34And there were a number of families there, So the child, siblings, parents, and one of the most impactful moments was witnessing a child who, with mobility challenges, wouldn't have otherwise been able to get up without this system that is specifically tailored for this child and children like them to get up there. But watching the mother experience that and getting to, as a complete stranger, watch this mother watch her child experience climbing the tower and getting to the top and then ziplining down. So again, things that can't gets kind of eradicated from the vocabulary. That was major. And she was just like crying.

16:28And she was so excited for her child to have that experience. That was like etched in my mind. I'd love to hear from all of you kind of around that same topic, which is this camp. Obviously, you focus a lot on the campers, but it's the whole family, parents, siblings, and everything involved. So you've all had very different experiences, either working there as a camper, as an advocate. What have you seen for like the whole family's perspective of how this camp is able to support beyond just the child too? Just as an outsider for me to see something that is so perfectly run. Jimmy has fine tuned it over the years with the help of incredible people.

17:11But I think probably whether it's a movie or a company like Google or, you know, the government to see things that are difficult to run well and to see something like this, dealing with such serious issues that they really anticipate and have great people and really fine tune things so that they run well. And one of those things, the first time I learned about it was how they take care of the siblings of the children that are experiencing the hardships, how they have a special program for them. And that just seemed so thoughtful to me and so kind of obvious once you'd had the idea, but just how it just seemed like an incredible idea to me.

17:57And then you think about these families where even the kid that's not experiencing the hardship can feel forgotten or that all the energy is going towards the child that's going through the hardships. And it's just seemed that's what the camp does dozens and dozens of things like that. And Jimmy was just telling me about a bereavement program they have now for when throughout the year taking care of parents whose child has died and where they're around other families. and can be around other people experiencing the same things. With the siblings and with the parents, I think early on at camp, we started as that summer camp program, traditional summer program.

18:41So it was just children with illness at that time in those first years. And very quickly you saw that behind every one of those children was a family in crisis. So whatever we could do to extend that healing love and touch to that child's family could have a rippling healing impact on the child with illness, on the diagnosed child. and one of the times that that came screaming out loud was in the last 10 years or so we started to run family programs. So we have our traditional summer program and then our fall and spring are filled with family weekends and one of those extended weekends we had for children with progeria.

19:33And progeria is the rapidly aging disease. All those children will pass in their adolescent years. And they're physically very, very different and so stigmatized throughout their lives, their short lives. And so we invited families of, there are only 18 children in the United States with progeria, 250 worldwide. And so we invited those families to come to camp. And over two consecutive years, we saw every child in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. And only two children had ever met another child like themselves. So not only was that liberating and healing for the children, but we had the parents and the healthy siblings join us.

20:19and so you could imagine the lifelines of support that were cast from one parent to the next, from one healthy sibling to the next, to connect on things that they were really struggling with. How do you care for their teeth? How do you keep them warm? So these conversations, that's The other beautiful part of the family program is the joy, the experience of the parents witnessing their child thriving. And then the other part is this incredible networking that's happening between people who are truly walking the same walk. That's so unique and so hard to find in your local community. I have to say, I am not an only child.

21:13I am part of a very big, very loud Latin family. And when I would go to camp, you know, first of all, it is free. So that in and of itself, you know, a week of a sleepaway camp in this like Western, like, you know, you're riding horses and fishing, not a fisher, okay? Okay. Fishing and doing woodwork and all these activities. They also had an incredible theater doing all these activities that I would not have been doing at home. And my siblings like didn't believe me when I would come home and tell these stories. They're like, sure, sure. Yeah. You and your horse, you know, or whatever. And so it was, it was this like really there's already a divide, right?

22:01Because they don't have the illness or not a diagnosed illness or whatever, but, um, but you're, you know, you already feel different. And, um, and so the addition of the family programs for me as, as they're newer, so we did not have that, or at least we, we didn't participate, but it's so beautiful to know that that exists now because the whole well-rounded experience of what camp does for us as the individual kids, but then for what it could provide to everybody is sensational. And I'm really happy that as an adult going back into the camp world, that my first experience and going to visit camp was during a family weekend because of exactly that.

22:51Because I always felt like it was this private, safe place for us. And so the fact that then like your family can experience it can know what you're talking about when you say the tower, when you say, you know, the pool and all these things, it kind of takes it away from being this magical, another isolating experience. You know, it was like Narnia, but it only existed in my head. So I think it's a huge, major, major, major addition. So you mentioned a little bit, Jimmy, about certain diseases, hardships where it's, you know, 200 or so, how do you think about how to expand and be able to have more opportunity to service everybody that's in need with all the different types of children that you could service and families you could service?

23:40Yeah, that's a great question. There's so much more. We will never tire of being able to think of new ways to serve. And that also was a reflection of our founder. He was just a very innovative entrepreneurial guy. So he wanted to try things, not spend too much time in the planning, but just try it. And so what started at Hole in the Wall on site as a summer program went to a year-round program relatively on site. Then when we filled up every bed, we realized there were more children that could come that wouldn't have a bed. So how do we go to them? We started a hospital outreach program. Today we're in 40 hospitals between Boston and Washington, D.C., with a team of 30 full-time staff who do nothing but bring camp to a child's hospital bedside.

24:33And then we have our home care program. If a child's declining in health, we'll set up a day camp in their homes so that they can remember camp. We'll do activities in the local neighborhood inviting families that don't know one another that we know should know one another. And then the latest is this new campus. We were gifted this magnificent site in Queenstown, Maryland, on the eastern shore of Maryland, to create a second hole-in-the-wall campus. And that one will be much more family-focused from the very beginning and will be much more focused on ultra-rare disease. In addition to cancer and sickle cell, it will have a stronger focus for ultra-rare disease inviting the families.

25:23And I think for us, I mean, there's so many illnesses, so many rare diseases to consider. I mean, you could have multiple camps just for children with sickle cell. So how do you decide? And I think on this new site, what was so moving to us was, you know, if Paul started it today, what are those illnesses that are incurable, moderately treatable, if treatable, profoundly isolating, and physically very altering? and also be able to give them an experience where the children have the cognitive ability to see the connection and to see the community and leave feeling that sense of normalcy, that sense of connection and community.

26:14So there are a number of rare diseases that we're looking forward to serving in Maryland. I want to talk a little bit about advocacy because one thing that Paul referenced a lot was he was using a celebrity for good. So, Luke, how does that resonate with you for your involvement in camp? Well, I did write down something that I'd read in the book that I was mentioning. You have great handwriting. Hey, thanks. Well, I just want to read this. It was Paul talking about kind of how it all came together. and he said, now who can explain that? Who's going to know how the recognition of the pluck of those camp kids have and how they deal with their lives simply triggered an unknown and previously unresponsive mechanism in me, a mechanism that opens a door into myself and lets me actually see what might be lurking there?

27:16Then you simply change? The answer may just be, it was time. Suddenly, here I am, an atheist, a non-metaphysicalist, who finds himself stuck right in the middle of God. It's weird, it's human, and it's inexplicable. I mean, I think that's the most incredible thing, is how Paul, this is a guy who kind of lived in Connecticut with Joanne, and kind of had a quiet life, I think, and was not a part of the Hollywood scene or the New York scene. and a guy that liked to be kind of in the background and really did care about acting was one of those people that studied and had taken it very seriously. But then to turn and think, okay, like I was saying, I'll be on the side of a bottle of lemonade and the popcorn and everything.

28:08So I think that he recognized the power that that kind of celebrity can have. He took a lifetime of work that he took very seriously and then used it somehow to start this other thing that was so incredible. And one thing I wanted to mention about the camp is, to me, part of what makes it so incredible is you have this terrible thing moving in one direction, you know, the illness, but then it meets up against people like Jimmy and the counselors and the kids that have been there, and they hit, and there is an energy that creates, that is created there, And you feel it at the camp just when you visit there, you know, like me, you can feel an energy.

28:54And it is an incredible thing. And, you know, can't quite put my finger on it. But, yeah, that's kind of my take on it. I mean, I feel like I didn't really have a choice in the matter. I think as I started working and as I started becoming more and more of a public figure, my, you know, my desire to be an artist or well, not desire, you're either an artist or you're not. It doesn't matter if you're working. But my artistry led me to be in a position that people started to listen to what I would say. um and and again I think tapping into that it's it's a little scary because it's not necessarily you know I wouldn't say society is going in that direction um but but the reality is we're human and I think human connection is what everybody is after whether they want to admit it or not and I think for me as a kid who grew up with a disability and who still has a very active disability.

30:00Like, you know, I'm one of the lucky ones that, well, you know, it's a double-edged sword, but I have an invisible disability. But every single person is one life event away from becoming disabled. And a child, when you look at children, you know, I think that the inherent human instinct is to care for that child. So then that's, it's almost like this perfect cocktail if, you know, a child who's going through something that can't go away, still deserves that childhood, you know, and I think that being a product of that myself, two and a half years ago, I got a hip replacement. And when I was on the couch, I was like, well, this is awful, because I'm not used to I'm very restless, I need to be doing something.

30:47And so I sent an email, And I was like, how can I get involved with camp now from this side of the table? And I wasn't looking necessarily to be on the board. I just wanted to volunteer or do whatever I could do. And one thing led to another. And here I am. But it wasn't necessarily like the angle I was going for. But now it just feels like the perfect fit of what to do with all my energy that doesn't go toward work. you know, and, and also it, it can, one thing can help the other, you know, so as I keep working and hopefully continue to have a platform, like how can I use that for good rather than just being another person doing the same thing, you know, and it's, and it comes from a very real place.

31:38Um, so, and there's multiple ways I think to do that, whether you're a public figure or whether you're not you know um which perfect segue i am running the marathon in november for camp didn't know that i know you didn't know that we kept it a secret until today i know so i'm very excited how how many years since the hip replacement is your hip no she knows she knows she's coming um it's uh it will be at that time because it's november 2nd it'll be exactly like three years and two weeks. Amazing. Thank you. Yeah, I'm excited. So yeah, anybody can do those things. You know what I'm saying? Well, that was gonna be my next question.

32:23What advice would you give to people who either have a platform or don't to use, you know, their voice for good? Send the email, you know, find out what you're passionate about, find out what you care about, what makes you a little bit extra excited to get out of bed in the morning. And it can be anything. I don't think there's a shortage at the moment of people who could use you. And so send the email and you never really know where it's going to be. And even Paul, you know, he was 61 when he started this. And then, you know, to think about all the counselors that, you know, Jimmy had started as a counselor and he then became camp director.