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Dreams come and go throughout our
lives, but they are never more important
than when we are children. And with
childhood dreams come desire, longing
and hope. Often the smallest, seemingly
insignificant of those dreams mean the
most to us—dreams like going to summer
camp.
According to Abigail A. Van Slyck, author of A Manufactured Wilderness: Summer Camps and the Shaping of American Youth 1890-1960, overnight camps were first designed in North America by middle-class professionals, just before the turn of the nineteenth century, as a much needed refuge from what they considered the “moral and physical degradation of urban life.” Since then summer camp has become a staple in American summer tradition, helping children gain a sense of independence, develop social skills and forge lifelong friendships with people they otherwise would not have met.
Unfortunately, for some children summer camp seems an impossible dream. For a child inhibited by autism or bound to a wheel chair, fishing and playing sports with other campers poses major accessibility issues. But not at Camp Dream.
Created as a cost-free camp for children with special needs, Camp Dream in Warm Springs, Ga. has been making the dream of attending summer camp a reality for 15 years. Support from the Jaycees (Georgia Junior Chamber of Commerce), the Georgia Department of Labor Rehabilitation Services, Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute and private donors has made it possible for children with mental and physical disabilities to enjoy the simple pleasures of outdoor life.
This June, Camp Dream’s staff will welcome 40 campers, ages 8 to 18, into their program at the Warm Springs Institute, where the children will participate in a wide variety of activities. Like other campers across the country, Camp Dream attendees will enjoy days filled with everything from arts and crafts to leisurely fishing and boating and the athletics of basketball, soccer and swimming. But because Camp Dream was created for special needs children, its paths are paved to accommodate wheel chairs, the facilities are “barrier-free” and the counselor-to-camper ratio is one-to-one.
Each year parents face the anxiety of sending their child to an overnight camp for the first time, but this anxiety bore especially heavily on the minds of Deborah and David Smith when they considered sending their son Anthony to Camp Dream his first year. Anthony is a medically fragile child with autism, so leaving their son in the hands of strangers was not an easy decision.
“I never thought I would feel confident enough to let strangers take care of my son for three nights. But the directors and counselors have always taken very good care of him while he is away from home. They have a great medical team of nurses and a doctor, which has helped put me at ease,” Deborah said.
Doctors Jon Malinowski and Christopher Thurber, co-authors of Summer Camp Handbook, advocate that parents learn as much as possible about a camp before sending their child. “If some aspect of camp remains unknown after you’ve inspected the camp’s materials and talked to other families, don’t hesitate to call the director. Lingering questions generate anxiety, so find out what you need to know, and then relax.”
Anthony is now a regular at Camp Dream; this year will be his eighth. The Smiths have seen much improvement in Anthony since that first camp session. When Anthony was six years old, he entered Camp Dream as a picky eater, and it was necessary to feed him through a tube at night to insure that he received the proper nutrients. Now, Anthony eats more regularly, and the need for a feeding tube has become less frequent. Anthony also used to communicate in faint and short, wisp-like sentences, but now communicates more effectively his desires and needs.
Deborah and her husband have also benefited from Anthony’s continued growth at Camp Dream. Besides a much deserved respite from the stresses of caring for a special needs child full time, Deborah still gets a lump in her throat watching her son and his friends perform their skits at the end of each session.
When Camp Dream was being built, David Smith was transportation director at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, where they lived in a small cabin. They watched the camp’s construction, never imagining that they would one day have a child who enjoys the camp so much. “That’s the kind of place it is,” Deborah said, “a place that inspires dreams for special children and their families.”
Pam Kachmar is the current president of the Camp Dream Foundation and has taken on various roles at the camp since its inception in 1993, including camp director and chairman of the board. Kachmar and the Camp Dream Foundation make it possible for children to enjoy this camp by working year round. “It’s our goal to keep it at no cost to the parents. Occasionally parents will pay the costs, but we will not turn a child away because their parents cannot afford it,” she explained.
In the early years of the program, children were sponsored by different Jaycee chapters across the state. However, the number of Jaycee chapters has declined in recent years, so finding funds has become a challenge. The foundation holds fundraisers throughout the year, all over the state of Georgia. The Camp Dream Car Show, Golf Tournament and Motorcycle Ride are just a few of the ways that funds are raised to keep the program cost free to the parents. The Foundation also relies on private donors.
The staff at Camp Dream is comprised entirely of volunteers. Everyone, including the registered lifeguard, the fishing instructor, the counselors and the activities coordinator give freely of their time to keep the camp running. Kachmar says the greatest gift for volunteers is “getting to see immediately the happiness that they bring to the children.”
“A little known secret of Camp Dream,” Deborah confided, “is that the staff has just as much fun working with the children as the children do attending.”
If you know a child who would benefit from Camp Dream or would like to volunteer or donate funds, visit their website at jayceescampdream.org.
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