Young Wheelchair Campers Get a Taste of Competition at SDSU

When it comes to sports, most disabled children stay on the sidelines. But the 45 children attending the third annual Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp at San Diego State University this week are getting a taste of competition.

The children, ages 5 through 18, are instructed by counselors, also in wheelchairs, who are expert in tennis, swimming, track and field, archery and basketball. The camp was made possible this year with the help of the La Mesa and San Diego fire departments, which contributed volunteers and funds; the Easter Seal Society of San Diego and the Lions Club.

Most of the firefighters participating this year are returning volunteers, and when they found out that the grant that funded the past two camps had run out, they organized donations and money-raising events. Other organizations donated the food that is served every day to the campers.

Positive Role Models

But another key contribution comes from the people who volunteer to help run the camp and assist children during lunch and when they change clothes to participate in the sports, said Marla Knox, a camp coordinator and recreation leader with the Disabled Services Program of the San Diego Park and Recreation Department.

The weeklong camp provides not only physical conditioning for the children, but positive role models as well: the people who have succeeded in life even though they are in wheelchairs, said Rick Draney, a counselor at the camp who suffered a spinal-cord injury eight years ago in a car accident.

The campers, most of them from San Diego, are transported by buses donated by Sharp Rehabilitation Hospital. Each day until 4 p.m., they participate in at least four activities in one-hour intervals.

A positive attitude is emphasized during the week, and counselors encourage the children to take part in every sport, Knox said.

‘We Can Be Givers’

Mark Shepherd, the camp’s basketball instructor, was a police officer in Northern California until he was injured three years ago and paralyzed from the waist down. He said the camp allows for social interaction among the campers and a feeling of equality, which disabled children usually miss out on at school.

“Working with kids like these lets me know there is something I can give back” to society, Shepherd said. “Most people think (disabled people) are takers, but we can be givers, and we are able to take care of ourselves.”

Draney, who has been a counselor and director in other camps for disabled children for six years, said the children at the camp are able to find out what they can do instead of being told what they can’t.

“It gives me a great sense of satisfaction to see their horizons, their vision, expanded, to see them dream a little more,” he said.

Jeremy Gilbert, a 15-year-old camper who has spina bifida, said what he enjoys most about the camp is the freedom to participate in different sports.

Luke Ture, 11, suffered a spinal-cord injury when he was 2 years old in a car accident in Germany, and he said he sees the 10 instructors and counselors as good role models for the children.

“You are getting role models for what you would like to do from people who are very successful,” he said.