Fun in the Summertime
Derek Westfield rolled his wheelchair across the gymnasium floor and barked commands to a squad of wheelchair basketball players as they ran through a few plays Tuesday morning.
With skill and tenacity, the disabled athletes dribbled, passed and shot the ball into plastic garbage cans during a game in the Kinesiology Building at Cal State Northridge.
“I don’t let them slack off,” said Westfield, a former camper who has worked as a basketball coach for three years. “If I see them off to one side by themselves, I go and get them and tell them to get back in the game.”
Getting kids into the game is the sole mission of Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp, a weeklong program designed to teach sports and interpersonal skills to young people with disabilities, organizers said.
The camp is co-sponsored by CSUN’s Department of Kinesiology and Adaptive Sports and Recreation, a Simi Valley-based nonprofit organization that specializes in recreation programs for those with physical challenges.
The wheelchair sports camp is just one of the many activities being offered this summer to keep kids from falling into a three-month cerebral and physical lull.
With most schools in summer recess, tens of thousands of youngsters across Los Angeles probably will enroll in traditional day camps and specialized enrichment programs.
For those unable to find structured activity, the consequences could be disastrous, experts say. Young people with time on their hands are more likely to drink, smoke, use drugs, commit crimes and become sexually active than those under adult supervision.
Youth with disabilities are at risk for low self-esteem and depression, said Nick Breit, co-director of the wheelchair sports camp and a CSUN kinesiology professor.
“They are depressed and feel sorry for themselves,” Breit said. “Then they come here and they see someone worse off than they are and they don’t feel as bad. The most exciting thing is to see their attitudes improve.”
During the week, about 35 campers ages 7 through 21 will take tennis, basketball, hockey, rugby, archery and swimming lessons.
“In the water they can be totally free,” said co-director Ingrid Cleffi, adding that water workouts reduce spasticity and increase range of motion.
At San Fernando Recreation Park on Tuesday, kids in the summer day camp program got wet and wild at the city’s public pool, under the watchful eye of camp coordinator Patty Garcia.
Without the program, Garcia said 300 kids would be high and dry.
“They would be at home watching television or out in the streets,” she said. “This offers them a structured program.”
Kids throughout the Valley can frolic at city parks, which offer day camps, sports camps and theater camps for preschoolers, school-age kids and teens. Here’s a sampling:
* At Northridge Recreation Center, kids can take part in an eight-week theater program that began Monday and will conclude with a Broadway-style performance of the musical “Oliver.” The $300 program runs from 12:45 to 4:45 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.
* Sun Valley Recreation Center offers summer day camp programs for preschoolers from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and children 6 to 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The program provides lunch, arts and crafts, water play and field trips. The cost is $35 a week for the preschoolers and $50 a week for older children. Extended day-care hours from 7:30 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. are available.
* Art, sports, cooking, singing, swimming and field trips are among the activities on tap at the Reseda Recreation Center. Children 5 to 12 can attend the camp from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. The cost is $95 a week, with additional charges for extended hours.
* It’s all sports, all the time at Van Nuys-Sherman Oaks Recreation Center’s Sports Camp. Kids 7 to 12 will participate in baseball, softball, soccer, flag football, basketball and volleyball during the 10-week program that runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. The cost is $110 a week.
Families on tight budgets can find structured programs in safe places without spending a lot of money. Teens can volunteer at hospitals, libraries, senior centers and nonprofit groups. Also, for the second year in a row, children will be able to swim for free at any of the Valley’s 15 public pools.
For information about area recreation programs, call the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks at (213) 485-4853.
