CityView Magazine

20 November 2023 Room to grow Neonatal physician Scott Cameron came to better understand the challenges faced by young adults with disabilities as a resident of Friendship House while in divinity school. He was a leader in bringing the concept to Fayetteville, and his vision didn't end there. BY JAMI MCL AUGHLIN | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAUL RUBIERA 2023 POWER OF GIVING COMMUNITY IMPACT AWARDS Scott Cameron will be honored at CityView's Power of Giving Community Impact Awards presented by PWC. Tickets are available at cityviewnc.com. S cott Cameron calls himself a messenger. e local neonatal physician was a leader in bringing Friendship House — a residential facility for young adults with disabilities and medical students — and Friendship Gardens — which provides sustainable food resources — to Fayetteville. He gives credit to the community and his partners. "e ideas just connected somehow, and the community backed it all," Cameron says. Friendship House, which is now in its fih year, is at capacity with 24 residents. Ten of them are residents with intellectual or developmental disabilities, most of them with either Down's syndrome or autism. e other 14 are students in medical programs at local colleges and universities or are affiliated with Cape Fear Valley Health. Cameron is one of four community advocates who will be recognized with CityView's Power of Giving Community Impact Awards for 2023. Cameron's story connects his medical career and his mission trips, both of which influenced his desire to make a difference in the community. A Fayetteville native, Cameron, 53, graduated from Terry Sanford High School. He attended Duke University and went to medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His residency was in pediatrics, and he served a fellowship in neonatology at Johns Hopkins University before joining Cape Fear Valley Health's neonatal intensive care unit in 2005. His love for mission work was inspired by joining Highland Presbyterian Church, the home church of his wife, Avery. ey started attending the annual Presbyterian Pilgrimage weekends at Camp Dixie. "It was a full watershed weekend of faith and deciding what was next. And what was next was the Prescription for Renewal," Cameron says. Participation in the global medical mission begins at the Billy Graham retreat in Asheville. Members of Cameron's family were doing short- term mission work when they received news that a spot was open for a monthlong mission in Kenya. "It was right aer my wife's father died, and we took the whole family for a month. We loved it so much we went back for a second time the next summer," Cameron says. It was then that his story took a turn with a medical problem of his own. He had been experiencing abdominal issues for almost 10 years without a proper diagnosis. On the way to Amsterdam through connecting flights, his stomach began to expand. "I looked like I was 32 weeks pregnant. Here we

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