Newman's legacy is for children

LAKE LUZERNE, N.Y. — Suspended by ropes high in the Adirondack pines, young campers at Double H Ranch can leave behind all sorts of things — worries, hospital visits, but especially the idea of being limited by medical conditions.

A teen harnessed to an angled cable leaps from a platform and zips down to the forest floor as Green Day's "Time of Your Life" blares from a boombox.

The summer scene of young daredevils at the Double H is testament to Paul Newman's philanthropy. His idea in the '80s to start a camp in Connecticut for critically ill children has grown unexpectedly into an international phenomenon with a ninth Hole in the Wall Gang camp opening soon.

The camps will host thousands of children, for free, well after the 81-year-old actor speaks his last line before a camera.

"If I leave a legacy," Newman said, "it will be the camps."

The rustic cabins of the Double H are tucked in the woods of the southern Adirondacks near a mountain lake. Programs run year-round, but the place really buzzes in the summer. As campers climb ropes among tall trees, others paint faces, ride horses, swim and play soccer. It's typical summer camp stuff, which is the whole point.

Though campers' diagnoses include cancer and muscular dystrophy, counselors cringe at terms like "sick kids' camp."

"We want to present the opportunity to be a child first, not a child with an illness," said camp director Jacqueline Brown.

The story of the camps begins, improbably enough, in 1980 with Newman and his pal A.E. Hotchner stirring up oil and vinegar with a canoe paddle in the actor's Connecticut barn.

They wanted to pass out bottles of homemade salad dressing during a round of Christmas caroling. As the pair explains in their book, "Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good," Newman thought of selling the leftover dressing. That idea spawned the now ubiquitous Newman's Own brand of dressings, pasta sauces, popcorn and salsa, which have raised some $200 million for charities.

Announcing plans for the original Hole in the Wall Gang camp in 1986, Newman said it was made possible by salad dressing, "and the people who buy the damn stuff." Newman has remained fuzzy on his inspiration, saying he just woke up with the idea.