Larry Doyle was many things in his all-too-brief 42 years: a son, a brother, an uncle. He was a product of St. Ann’s, president of his class at Don Bosco, cooked at Gerard’s Adams Corner, a Red Sox fanatic and a proud Dorchester kid.

But, if there was one thing that captured Larry Doyle’s true character, it was the one week every summer that he volunteered at Camp Fatima. Doyle is one of scores of Dot volunteers who flock to the New Hampshire lakeside camp every August to assist special needs campers who get the chance to enjoy camp life, at no expense, as part of “Exceptional Citizens Week” at the Catholic-run camp.

Larry passed away after a brief illness in 2010— and now his nephew Steve Doyle, 26, is carrying on Larry’s legacy by raising money for the Fatima Family, as he calls it. Steve honchoed a first-annual fundraiser in Larry’s memory last year that raised more than $20,000 for the camp. Proceeds from last year’s event are helping to build a special shower house that will be used by Fatima campers in time for the new summer season.

Steve thinks that he and his friends can raise at least that much again this year.
“We’ll at least get very close to it again. Even if we don’t, to me personally, the bigger the better. The more we raise, the more we honor my uncle,” who Steve considered more like a dad as a youngster growing up in Neponset.

“He basically raised me,” Steve says. “I grew up without a dad, so he was my father. I’d tell people, I spent more time with him then most people do with their own father. We were that close.”

These days, Steve and his brother spend much of their time caring for Larry’s parents at their Cape Cod house. Like his beloved uncle, Steve has made Camp Fatima the focal point of his year after spending the last three years as one of 300 special needs volunteers who give up a mid-August week to assist 70 campers with a wide range of disabilities.

“It’s a different world up there,” says Steve. “There’s no drama and I just fell in love with it. The kids are so happy 24-7 and it comes off on you. I came back and was so happy for weeks.”

No doubt, part of the bond Steve has developed with Camp Fatima is the memory of his uncle’s devotion to the place and the people. Larry started going to Fatima in the last 1990s with a large group of Dorchester friends led by Rob McIntyre.

“You can start volunteering there at 16 as a waiter serving food. There are some people there in their 60s and 70s who’ve been doing this for 40 years now,” explains Steve. “It really is like one big family. It’s a different breed of people.”

Even those who can’t make the week-long commitment to volunteer can help out by coming to Friday’s fundraiser at Florian Hall or by making a donation. The party runs from 6:30 p.m. to midnight and will feature a special appearance by Rene Rancourt, the Boston Bruins crooner, who will perform. There will be many Bruins related raffle and silent auction items along with other prizes, Steve Doyle says.

“We had t-shirts made up this year that say: Larry Doyle and then Family-Faith-Friends. To me that’s what Larry was all about. That’s what camp Fatima’s all about too.”