Foundation of Camp Courage
This article describes Camp Courage, a camp for people with physical and mental disabilitiees that I attend, and have been attending every summer for about 16 years. I was asked to write a piece on how the camp has had a positive affect on my life since I became a camper.
Horseback riding, swimming, and crafts are just a few of the great activities I enjoy at camp. However, they are not my favorite. When I think about Camp Courage the word that comes to mind is Freedom. Freedom means the ability to be around people that are not all the same as yourself. You see, I live in a building that was especially created for individuals with various disabilities, anything from physical to developmental challenges. Even though I appreciate and highly respect people similar to me, it is often challenging to be around them 24/7. It’s a constant reminder of the functions I wish I could have…Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate what I have, but don’t you wish life could be different sometimes? Do you dream about it and/or picture yourself in another life doing what you want to do without limitations? I know I do.
I have Cerebral Palsy which mostly affects my lower extremities, but also my fine motor skills. My right side is weaker than my left, but it’s really hard to tell unless people know me. I don’t like to make little things obvious. People with physical challenges who use wheelchairs as a primary mode of transportation already stand out enough. The last thing they need is a person with a detective-type personality to notice the smallest challenge that comes with their disability like a speech impediment or a limp. Society should not judge these individuals by what they see on the surface. Rather, it should focus on inner personalities, for inside these brains there may be extraordinary gifts and talents that never came to the surface before. For example, an individual may be a top math wizard, a champion chess player, or for all we know, the next Einstein! If we begin to form impressions of these unique individuals based only on what their disabilities, we’ll never know what kind of individuals they truly are.
In the Spring of 2005, during my freshman year at Augsburg I was hit with a terrible stomach illness, which caused my colon to become severely inflamed. I was on the path to the operating room to have it removed, but luckily after lots of medical trial and error the inflammation decreased and the operating room was no longer a road block in my path. Due to the severity of the illness I missed the whole spring semester of my freshman year. However, out of the goodness of their hearts, my professors were willing to conduct my lessons in the hospital. They came a couple times a week to give me class materials and guide me through projects I had begun before becoming ill. I had an introductory speech class that semester. My best memory of this difficult time were the days when I was able sit in my wheelchair hooked up to my IV in a room with just my professor and deliver speeches. I loved and respected him for many reasons, but for one in particular; when I spoke I knew that he was not really looking at my IV and other things that made my illness obvious, he was looking at me and paying attention to my words. He was able to look beyond the chair and all of the attachments because he knew the real me. He, along with other people in the Augsburg community and my loved ones were the reason I was able to rise above the illness, and return to the life that was all too familiar. My biggest message to people who live or are associated with individuals who have physical and/or developmental challenges is to think outside the chair, ask questions, show your interest, get to know them at the core.
That was a very long sag way into a very simple response, but who am I to judge? More often than not background information is needed before diving into a response. I was pretending in the previous paragraph. Now I’m diving in… head first:)
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Camp Courage is a true blue example of the meaning of this message. Once you enter, it’s like you’re in a different world. Here, you are not viewed as just another person in a wheelchair, but a real individual with a mind, body, and soul. Staff embrace your talents and brag of your individual uniqueness. favorite part of camp is being able to take the focus off of my challenges and put it on people who are not so much physically different from me but culturally. I strive to learn something new pertaining to culture every year at camp, (e.g., sign language) Courage Center is a place where “abilities and disabilities become possibilities.” Camp Courage focuses on what we are able to do despite our disabilities rather than what we are not able to do because of them. By the end of camp, a surrogate type of family is created. This “family” is made up of staff and/or campers whose exemplary personality, constant encouragement, and words of wisdom carries us through the rough and tough moments as well as the good and bad moments of the year until we return the following summer for more things to put in our memory bags. This self-created group of supporters, which is different but yet so similar for each individual, creates the foundation of Camp Courage.
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