Camilla
When God made Camilla, He thought of gifting her everything a little extra.
An Extra bit of Luck
An extra love for animals
An extra love for trees
An extra share of hard work at her daily swimming practices
An extra personality to enrapture any person in general
An extra talent at her drawings & painting with colours
An extra love for music
An extra love for dancing And
An extra Chromosome with the 21st pair
Camilla’s journey to Stardom in the Special Olympics World Games circles began when she was just 3 years old and this time she used-up her Extra bit of luck in being spotted, by chance, by Mr.Savio ,the YMCA Swimming trainer & Coach, at the Belapur ( Navi Mumbai) YMCA Hostel while accompanying her father to visit an uncle at YMCA Belapur.
She quickly enrolled for swimming coaching and learnt to swim without life saving float in just 5 days.
Mr.Savio identified her skill and advised swimming as a professional way of life for Camilla. The seed was well sown.
Through the years with regular swimming practice sessions, she at 13 joined BalkalyanSansthan, Pune, and underwent rigorous coaching for national & International Swimming competitions under the coaching of the well known swimming coach Sh. Abhijit Tambe.
Sh.Tambe worked on Cami’s swimming by increasing the difficulty level in small steps and one fine day announced her to be fit to swim the 5 Km open water event. This petrified the parents as Camilla had sparsely visited a Sea let alone swimming in it & that too for 5Km.
At Colva,Goa, a 15 year old Camilla surprised all including Olympian Virdhawal Khade by bagging 4th position in the 5Km All India all swimmers category event ( no special/handicapped category) and at 17 she bagged a Gold at the same event.
All through her Career she has been winning mostly a Gold with an occasional Silver at all the State & national Level competitions.
Her meritorious achievements enabled her selection to her First International Swimming Event The Trisome Games 2016 at Florence Italy. Camilla was the only Indian Swimmer to make it to Trisome Games and doing the entire Nation Proud with her galvanizing march with the National Tri-colour at the well known Piazza del Duomo,in Florence
Continuous 4 hours a day and six days a week was her schedule for swimming in 2018.
This arduous training was needed for her to make through the Indian Contingent for the Special Olympics World Games 2019.
At the world Games Camilla became the wonder girl by bagging a Silver in the 800m Free Style followed by India’s Maiden Bronze at the 1500m Open water event.
She deservedly received a Hero’s welcome on her return from the World Games
At 18, Camilla became Globally the youngest entrepreneur as a girl with Down Syndrome and started her own business named ADOLPHINGIRLPRODUCT .She wants to earn money not for her own use but for a philanthropic purpose.
She plans to start Camilla Patnaik Foundation to care for children who resort to seeking alms for their sustenance .
She works tirelessly painting Diwali Diyas which form the primary product of her business . She recognized the excellent art & craft work by the ever dwindling Dhokra tribe in Odisha, she has gone ahead and included innovative products from the tribal artwork be it brass craft work or painting. A Dolphingirl Product has made arrangements to purchase the Tribal artwork & craft work directly from the Dhokra Damar tribal village in Odisha AND at THEIR PRICE without any bargain . This way buying any item from A Dolphingirl Product also enables you to give back to society. The Dhokra ‘Jewelry Box” is a good example of such innovations and is a popular gift item.
A Dolphingirl product has also innovated a Wave Diya which adds beauty and delight to any celebration, be it Pooja at a Pendal or a Diwali lighting at home.
