Max
09-29-2002, 08:51 AM
Disabled find solace motivated through sports camp
Program encourages a can-do attitude
By REBECCA McENTEE
Copyright 2002 Austin American-Statesman
BURTON -- "Here, anyone not in a wheelchair is different," says Mike Haynes, coordinator for X-treme Sports Camp.
Haynes is talking from a wheelchair himself, as are most of the campers, counselors and staff at a custom-built, 206-acre facility near Brenham.
The campers -- 10 to 21 years old with various chronic illnesses or disabilities -- come from as far as Arizona, Kansas and Louisiana to ride horses, play basketball, kayak, scuba dive, climb ropes and, almost everyone's favorite, water-ski.
Recently, they enjoyed the added attraction of helicopter rides courtesy of double amputee Dana Bowman, who was once a Special Forces sergeant and member of the U.S. Army's elite parachute team, the Golden Knights.
Bowman took up campers on a friend's helicopter and touted his motto: "It's not the disability, it's the ability."
Camp for All is a year-round outdoor recreation and sports facility in Burton off U.S. 290 halfway between Austin and Houston. Groups such as X-treme Sports Camp and Camp Phever (specifically for kids with phenylketonuria, a genetic disorder that can result in mental retardation) use the camp for their programs.
Opened in 1998, Camp for All was built for people in wheelchairs. "There are no steps, so there are no ramps," says Janet Johnson, camp director. "And we use less than a 5 percent grade incline anywhere."
Take the accessible softball field: inlaid bases, shade structures instead of dugouts, a scoreboard on a berm so it can be reached by a wheelchaired scorekeeper. The barrier-free environment helps people get around, but making things easy in life is not the goal of X-treme Sports Camp.
"If you want to remain dependent, or you want your children to remain dependent, then this is not the camp for you," Haynes tells prospective campers. He and X-treme Sports Camp Director Melissa Duff sign up campers with a heightened level of independence and a desire to participate in sports.
The camp program is sponsored by the Institute for Rehabilitation and Research in Houston, Warm Springs Rehabilitation System in San Antonio and St. David's Wheelchair Fitness Program in Austin, where Haynes is a coordinator.
"The idea with X-treme Sports is to reach kids across Texas so that they can go back into their communities and get involved in adaptive sports," Duff says, "and to give them the sense that they could do it."
Campers are encouraged to try new things, find new strengths and learn new ways to accomplish tasks. For some who live in sparsely populated areas, the chance to be with other people in wheelchairs is invaluable.
Tomas Pacheco, who has a spinal cord injury, had never been in a kayak, but the 21-year-old camper took to paddling in August on the camp's lake like it was old hat.
"I've never done it before. When I get back home, I'm going to pick a sport to get involved with," the Houston resident says.
"Some campers have been able to blow through barriers and never look back," says Scott LeBlanc, director of sports development at Warm Springs. "One camper, Troy Haney, came in a power chair three summers ago and rarely used his manual chair. Now he doesn't have a power chair."
Manual chairs help keep cardiovascular systems fit and strengthen different muscle groups, but LeBlanc says an equally important result is that "it just opens their eyes to their own physical capacity. It raises the bar so they can understand what their level of independence can be."
That independence can include all kinds of sports, says Haynes, giving them "something to wake up for and be passionate about."
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"It was once written "To thine own self be true". But how do we know who we really are? Every man must confront the monster within himself, if he is ever to find peace without. .." Outer Limits(Monster)
Program encourages a can-do attitude
By REBECCA McENTEE
Copyright 2002 Austin American-Statesman
BURTON -- "Here, anyone not in a wheelchair is different," says Mike Haynes, coordinator for X-treme Sports Camp.
Haynes is talking from a wheelchair himself, as are most of the campers, counselors and staff at a custom-built, 206-acre facility near Brenham.
The campers -- 10 to 21 years old with various chronic illnesses or disabilities -- come from as far as Arizona, Kansas and Louisiana to ride horses, play basketball, kayak, scuba dive, climb ropes and, almost everyone's favorite, water-ski.
Recently, they enjoyed the added attraction of helicopter rides courtesy of double amputee Dana Bowman, who was once a Special Forces sergeant and member of the U.S. Army's elite parachute team, the Golden Knights.
Bowman took up campers on a friend's helicopter and touted his motto: "It's not the disability, it's the ability."
Camp for All is a year-round outdoor recreation and sports facility in Burton off U.S. 290 halfway between Austin and Houston. Groups such as X-treme Sports Camp and Camp Phever (specifically for kids with phenylketonuria, a genetic disorder that can result in mental retardation) use the camp for their programs.
Opened in 1998, Camp for All was built for people in wheelchairs. "There are no steps, so there are no ramps," says Janet Johnson, camp director. "And we use less than a 5 percent grade incline anywhere."
Take the accessible softball field: inlaid bases, shade structures instead of dugouts, a scoreboard on a berm so it can be reached by a wheelchaired scorekeeper. The barrier-free environment helps people get around, but making things easy in life is not the goal of X-treme Sports Camp.
"If you want to remain dependent, or you want your children to remain dependent, then this is not the camp for you," Haynes tells prospective campers. He and X-treme Sports Camp Director Melissa Duff sign up campers with a heightened level of independence and a desire to participate in sports.
The camp program is sponsored by the Institute for Rehabilitation and Research in Houston, Warm Springs Rehabilitation System in San Antonio and St. David's Wheelchair Fitness Program in Austin, where Haynes is a coordinator.
"The idea with X-treme Sports is to reach kids across Texas so that they can go back into their communities and get involved in adaptive sports," Duff says, "and to give them the sense that they could do it."
Campers are encouraged to try new things, find new strengths and learn new ways to accomplish tasks. For some who live in sparsely populated areas, the chance to be with other people in wheelchairs is invaluable.
Tomas Pacheco, who has a spinal cord injury, had never been in a kayak, but the 21-year-old camper took to paddling in August on the camp's lake like it was old hat.
"I've never done it before. When I get back home, I'm going to pick a sport to get involved with," the Houston resident says.
"Some campers have been able to blow through barriers and never look back," says Scott LeBlanc, director of sports development at Warm Springs. "One camper, Troy Haney, came in a power chair three summers ago and rarely used his manual chair. Now he doesn't have a power chair."
Manual chairs help keep cardiovascular systems fit and strengthen different muscle groups, but LeBlanc says an equally important result is that "it just opens their eyes to their own physical capacity. It raises the bar so they can understand what their level of independence can be."
That independence can include all kinds of sports, says Haynes, giving them "something to wake up for and be passionate about."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
==============================
"It was once written "To thine own self be true". But how do we know who we really are? Every man must confront the monster within himself, if he is ever to find peace without. .." Outer Limits(Monster)