Last post Wed, Jul 09 2008 3:59 AM by BMWgirl. 19 replies.
I went to camp Isanogal here in Indiana when I was a teenager.. I remember it being a lot of fun. Anyone else do this kind of stuff why back when? are you still going? I stopped going in like 1987 and I still to this day still miss it a lot..
I went away to summer camp for the first time at age 7. The camp was Agassiz Village in Maine. I went every summer. 22 years later I was still going away to camp. The last couple of years I was the assistant director of a different camp. I love summer camp and was considering going into it as a career.
Hey, I went to Isanogel from 1975 to 87, and off and on, well, more off until 1994 It was the best experience I had in my life! I don't think I would be who I am today if it wasn't growing up at Isanogel!
I went to Camp Cheerful in Strongsville, Ohio from the time I was 7 until I was 12.
Tom you have a message (PM)!!
I think summer camp is an important opportunity for ALL children. I went to 4H camp as a kid for one summer and several different day camps for other summers. I volunteered a few times for a camp program called Recreation Unlimited in Ohio that serves kids/teens with disabilities. They have different weeks for differenty types of disabilities and various ages. They also teach/promote adapted sports. It's an awesome place!
I went to sleep away camp sponsored by a local charity to help disabled kids in the Philly area. I thought it sucked!! My mom's idea, not mine!I just felt like I'm starting HS in a few weeks why are they treating me like I'm four? I joked the whole time I was there, I was sentenced to this place cause I didn't play nice with the other 7th graders) My mom thought I needed to be around other kids who wear disabled, since the normal Jr. High shit every girl goes through was made rougher for me due to being disabled.
I thought it was the biggest crock ever. How they sold parents on ohh we make your child more independent-yeah right. How does not letting someone at almost 14 do independently what been able to do since they were four foster independence? How does not listening to them teach them self advocacy for when they are away from parents? Most of my fellow campers loved it, not me, I couldn't wait to go home.I don't know-I would love to say my mom should have sent me to the same camp as my 'typical' friends but I understand why she felt she couldn't. Hello, she picked me up from 7Th grade one day and my pants were covered in mudd. She immediately asked what happend and I told her field science thing. There was no where dry to sit down so I tried my best to keep standing but I kept falling. They said if I could walk down there I should cause I couldn't get my WC back there. She of course was livid at how in sensitive both the teacher and my aide were to my needs. After that, how could I fault the women for not sending me away to a "typical" camp where hiking and sports were the main activity?I wish I could have gone to like an integrated camp where the staff was sensitive to the needs of disabled but it wasn't exclusively for disabled. (like both of colleges were)
I did, it was awful! Another camper said to me on the first day, "Do you have dignity? Cuz you won't when they get done with you." The counselors meant well, but I felt like they wre just doing this job so they could tell their AB friends how good-hearted they were.
One of the worst moments was when I started going down the nice sidewalk to the cabin alone, and a counselor (she was only a few years older than me) stopped me and said I wasn't allowedto go by myself.
Another bad moment happened when I realized that someone pushing you while holding a hockey stickk in front of you qualified as you playing hockey.
And it wasn't fun to feel the waves of resentment radiating from my roomates as they watched me do so many things by myself, or to watch people sitting naked in the showers waiting for help.
The place is called Indian Trails Camp in Grand Rapids, MI. Did anyone here actually have a good time there?
Escape,
When was that? Camps have changed drastically. Those thing wouldn't happen these days.
EscapeArtist: I did, it was awful! Another camper said to me on the first day, "Do you have dignity? Cuz you won't when they get done with you." The counselors meant well, but I felt like they wre just doing this job so they could tell their AB friends how good-hearted they were.
OMG- That was exactly my experince at another camp for the disabled!!! I was there in the summer of '93. I also got the same feeling about many of the counselors at my camp.e I also had the same thing happen to me when I tried to go somewhere alone-they would not let me. We couldn't close the bathroom door despite there were no stalls. I woke up in the middle of the night needing to go to the bathroom, so I went. Our counselor came in while I was sitting on one of the two open toliets in the bathroom and asked what I was doing? I was like what does it look like I am doing? I said, Iam almost 14 and very lucky that my CP is mild enough that I have been managing myslf on the toliet since I was four!!! She's like you know your not allowed to be unsupervised-you should have woken one of us up. I am like I don't wake my parents up, hell even my bitch aide at school (another nightmare) wouldn't follow me into the stall.
They also showered us in groups-regardlless if we needed help or not-you had no say in the manner. no dignity. As if that wasn't bad enough, the experience was so scary for me. Again, even though since age eight I would tell my family all right I am taking a shower and then close the bathroom door. (prior to eight only my mom would help me) At home I just alwys sat in the bottom of our tube to shower, since I knew my mom kept our house clean. Of course I wouldn't want to do that at camp, I wanted to use a showr bench-which they did have. But since I am able to walk a short distance-they told my I did not need a shower chair! Despite my having really poor balenece and the floor being concrete and wet!!!! They didn't even have those sticky non slip things on the shower floor-nothing. I said I am so scared I'll slip and hit my head on the concreate floor since my balence is bad and my standing tolerance is really decreased. They were well we don't have enough shower chairs and we need em for the people who can't stand at all. I said well why don't you stagger the showers, let me get in after you're done helping those who need hep.? That's what they do at Dupont, there's lots of equitment that's shared, after one kid uses it they make sure it's clean and then the next kid uses it..They said no, just sit on the floor to get a shower-the floor was so skanky and I either had to sit on it naked or be so scared that I'd fall and get a head injury on top of my CP!
So let me get this straight-I cannot wheel to the next activity by myself because I could hurt myself. But I can stand for ten minutes on a slippery hard surface with my mobility impairments-that was totally safe because I am supervised by some 20 y/o... And this is the place that's supposed to make me feel good about myself after a bad year at school? And this is the place that was supposed to make me more independent so I could go off to college in a couple years??
Now, maybe I was makeing too big of a deal out of no private bathroom time. I would think maybe, well AB kids change and shower in a locker room in front of each other. But never playing sports or doing normal gym, I A) didn't know about any locker room norms, if you walked around naked or not in front of other kids, B) If you did-I was never used to that. And whenever I'd go to sleepovers all my freinds would go in the bathroom to change-we didn't change in front of each other. When my friends came over my house and we decided to go swimming they would go in our bathroom to change, not in front of me. So first day I was at camp right after my mom and aunt left they say swimming is next. I think I am not happy to be here but I like swimming and the girl in the next bed seems cool, maybe it won't be that bad. I grab my suite to go in the bathroom to change, what I would think is normal behavior, they're like what are you doing, we don't close the bathroom door here and usally we just get changed on our beds.
The activities also sucked big time. There was like two hours in between each thing, when we just sat around, I don't know why. They had great facilities for sports. But they didn't used them anywhere near to their potential. They had no one on staff to run the sports program-so no instruction on adaptive tennis or baseball. I could have done a better job running that place. I would have recruited people who were big into wheelchair sports. If they agreed to be a reg consular-what a fab role model for a kid, their consular in their cabin is also in a chair. If they just wanted to come one day a week to do a tennis clinic or live in a staff only cabin, great too. I would have ran optional college/career planning seminars/discussion groups for early teens who were concerned about such. I would have tried to get an OT student every year to be on call for kids who were bothered by feeding or dressing issues. No forced or painful therapy for any one. If we saw a kid bothered by their ADL challenages we could ask em in your free time do you want to meet with she's really nice. Plus having a OT on staff would really help the conselors figure out how to do whatever. And I'd try and book better evening entertainment.
Like I said in another thread, I thought rehab at Dupont was actually more fun then this camp. At Dupont they would let you do whatever you could do. If you were able to talk, they would ask how do you take a shower at home? Do you need help? If you did they still were respectful-only you and your nurse in the bathroom. If you were like I am fine, they'd say ok well does the shower chair that's in there work or do you need another kind? They treated every kid as an individual where as at camp they treated us all the same, regardless of our abilities. Plus you got to watch tv, talk on the phone and go down to vending michanes none of which was offered at camp...No phone calls what so ever were allowed at camp. Truma for a teenage girl. I felt like I was in Juvie everytime we'd enter the dnning hall and saw that pay phone that we couldn't use and there was no way to sneak a cell cause you were alwys watched..I felt it was unfair that the girl I was fighting all of 7th grade didn't also get sentenced to this place, LOL. She was at least as equally to blame.
I am so soo glad my mom only made me go to camp only one summer!!!! The only good thing was I really hit it off with another girl in my cabin, if she wasn't there I would have been soo miserable!!!
Yep... I went to Summer camp... I was 12.... Gawd... how horrible!!
1. Wicked witch of a camp director
2. Horrible food: powdered eggs, warm milk and prune juice
3. camp nurse that forced me to drink milk of magnesia because I didn't have a BM on her command.. as if it were her body..
4. "free time" to them meant "nap time"-- I hadn't wanted or needed a nap since age 2. Silence in the cabins
5. all activities were indoor. If we went out doors we could only be walking between buildings on the grounds.
6. bed time at 9 pm--- for pete's sake it was Summer--- the sun hadn't even gone down yet! not that I wanted to sleep... refer to number 4 above.
7. From the moment I boarded the bus to the camp I felt like I was being punished and sent off to Siberia or somewhere. I was really homesick.... mom came to visit... "mom can I please come home?" her reply.... "I need a break from you, my body needs to rest." Ok.. 20/20 hindsight... I get it.... but I was 12.... she may as well have said... "I don't want you to be my daughter anymore."
8. "Henry"-- the one good thing I can say about Summer camp. he was the boy who taught me about why teenagers like to go to movies and not watch the movie.
Well let's see.... 7-1 in the negative... yep I would say that my experience was a bad one. Another note-- number 7 prompted me to take the following stance on the "summer camp issue" when I have children, I'll let them decide if they want to go to camp. If they choose to go. fine. they choose not to go. fine. they get homesick.... I 'll answer with a better response than the one my mom came up with or just pack everything in the car and drive home.
WOW! I got to say that I really feel bad for you guys that had those horrible experiences at camp. Looks as if I was lucky. My camp experiences were great. Even when I was a counselor things were great for the campers. Of course there are always kids that just don't want to be there. A well run program can turn those kids around before the 2 week session is over. But there are some kids that camp just isn't for them. Normally, we would advise the parents agains them returning the following summer.
During my years as a camper and staffer at a disabled camp, there were some rules that we in place for the safety of the campers. Being out alone at night on dirt paths, or even paved ones, was sometimes a no, no. Last thing we wanted was a camper dumping his or her self out of the chair. We would allow as much freedom as possbile. That was the whole idea of camp. Our kids choose their own activities and schedule. Sailing, canoeing, Ropes Course, Archery, arts & Crafts, et, etc, etc... we had it all. There was a Free Period" where the kids could choose anything they wanted to do. A chance to try something new that they hadn't previously picked and scheduled. Rest Period was just that. A camper could nap, hang out, read and wrote letters. But it was a 45 minutes of quiet time around the camp. This included the staff that may times needed the break. As many worked into the evenings to prepare for the next day. Our evening activies usually went until 9 or 9:30 and included the whole camp. PWD and ABs. By 10pm. Most campers were back in their cabins and depending on their age, will determine lights out. But normally the entire camp was down and quiet by 11pm. Except for staffers working to be ready for the next day.
BMWgirl: I would think maybe, well AB kids change and shower in a locker room in front of each other. But never playing sports or doing normal gym, I A) didn't know about any locker room norms, if you walked around naked or not in front of other kids, B) If you did-I was never used to that.
BTW, BMWgirl, In boys locker rooms and shower houses at camp, group showers and changing rooms is the norm. At least it was in the 4 different camps I attended or worked at.
Can't officially claim knowledge about the girls locker rooms.
Shannon,
Totally agree with you on both feeling like I was being punished, but not to the extent that you went through and that kids should decide if they want to go/stay there. I also agree for me there was a lot of negatives to the place and only one positive so in my mind it goes down as a suckie experience.
I refused to answer the whole BM question. There was a chart on the bathroon wall and I found that completly offensive. I said look if you make me drink anything I'll just spit it out. Not my fauult I have a hyper active gag reflix. Whenever I am in the hospital it's in my chart I cannot take liquid meds, they have to be pill form.
Gee, I wonder why I got the rep as cabin brat~LOL LOL
Tridog- I'd so understand group showers if it was like a parent trap style camp, but each cabin had thier own bathroom so..Half the day was rest time in our cabin, fortunatly we could talk and play music, not like there wasn't enough time to do it individualy..I totally understand not being allowed to roam the camp alone after a certain hr bu thought it wa absurd I couldn't go onto the dinning hall when if I was ready and the other girls weren't. Or step outside to see what I wanted to wear w/o it being like I just slit my wrists. They were like freaking out at me.
But I think it's cool that camp was and continues to be such a a good thing in your life. I wish I could start a camp for both ab/disabled kids.
OMG Home Alone 2, sucked!! I am still bitter-lol. Whenever I am flipphing through cable and see that movie I think of the nite when I was stuck at gimp camp watching that and it my town's biggest party night of the year, so unfair! I was so happy when the boy that I had liked all year invited me to a party at his house for this big town thing that happend every summer...I thought yes, no way mom will make me go now, she knows how into him I am..I go home and say guess what, she's like you'll be at camp that weekend, I am like no I won't, she's said yeah you will. You can goto canonoe Carnival next year-not like this is the last year they're having it and I am sure they'll be doing something fun at camp that night-yeah right.
Bottom line-I just felt like just as much of that weird special ed kid at camp as I did in my "typical" school-just in a differnt way.
I saw the new Documentary "Summer Camp" on Sundance last night. It confirmed my beliefs that gimp camp treated us like we all were retarded. The kids on the Documentary were allowed to go places w/o direct supervision..
It's a good movie if you just want to be reminded about what it was like to be 10 or 12 years old. I also liked it cause it reminded me of were I grew up, I was so lucky to grow up around lakes and canonoes and stuff. Did not remind me of my camp. It is not a good movie in terms of there's not much plot to it.
OMG... I feel for you guys. Only time I ever went to Summer Camp was in 1966, when I was 12. I was also AB then as well, so it was different.
May I suggest you all write the directors of these camps 9the ones you were unhappy with) and let them know just how you felt as you've done here? What concerns me the most is the dignity problems. I could NOT imagine being disabled at the ages you were when all this occured and have to be naked in front of a dozen people. Especially since about 12 is when you really get self-conscieous about your own body. Now my memory is horrible, but I don't recall ever having to be naked in front of a bunch of other kids when I went to the AB camp in '66.
