Disabled Youths Fit Right in at ‘Camp Attitude’

When boarding a hay ride earlier this week, 14-year-old Billy Brower of Ventura clenched his fists and started to cry. Billy, who has cerebral palsy, was always afraid of horses, but after this experience, he stopped to give the horse a carrot and a kiss.

Hours before, Roman Chavez quietly declared he didn’t want to go in a boat around Lake Casitas. With some gentle encouragement, the Santa Paula 15-year-old with muscular dystrophy took the cruise, which he later admitted was a lot of fun.

Billy, Roman and 21 other youths with disabilities are in Oak View this week challenging their limits at Camp Attitude. The children, from throughout California and Arizona, and their families are getting a chance to scale climbing walls, swing from a cable 40 feet in the air and take trips to the beach and a Dodger game, all for free.

“It’s only been a day and there’s already been so many fabulous things to do,” said Billy’s mother, Kim Brower. “This is way beyond anything that I had in my imagination.”

The camp was organized by Mark Zier, a former youth pastor at Ventura Missionary Church, and Dan Whitney, an inspirational speaker who lives in Scotts Valley near Santa Cruz.

The pair, who met when Zier was Whitney’s youth pastor in San Diego, raised $70,000 in donations from churches, corporations and individuals with the help of the Santa Paula Optimist Club, Zier said, adding that organizing the camp took about 10 months.

Whitney, 36, said he was motivated to start such a camp since his recovery from a mountain biking accident in December 2000. After the software salesman broke his neck, doctors told him he had a one-in-a-million chance of walking again. He now walks, albeit slowly, with the help of a leg brace and crutch.

During his recovery, Whitney met Ron Heagy, a paraplegic who had started the first Camp Attitude in Oregon two years ago. When Whitney spoke at the Oregon camp last August, he and Zier, 56, decided to bring a similar camp to Southern California to make it easier for more disabled children to participate.

The fledgling camp--held at Forest Home at Rancho del Rey, a Christian retreat and conference center--has 40 people on a waiting list for next year and Zier and Whitney want to eventually open one or two camps in Arizona near Flagstaff.

“When [children with disabilities] are lucky enough to go to a regular camp, they feel like outsiders,” Whitney said. “This is a place where they can come and just be themselves.”

Kim and Dean Brower have taken Billy and his 16-year-old sister, who also has physical disabilities, to several camps and day programs for Boy Scouts and the disabled, but say this is the first weeklong camp their children have attended designed exclusively for disabled youths.

The camp is a luxury the family would never have been able to afford on its own, Kim Brower said. The best part, she said, is how patient and accommodating the dozens of volunteers have been.

“Usually, everywhere we go we feel like we’re forcing ourselves on people,” Brower said in tears. “Here, there’s not a ‘No.’ It’s, ‘Let’s think. We’ll work something out.’ ”

In particular she praised the “huggers”--teen volunteers without disabilities who are assigned to each camper. The interaction with peers without disabilities is something that disabled children can miss out on, Brower said.

Julie Arreguin of Oxnard said the huggers for her 5-year-old daughter Amelia, who has spina bifida, grabbed the girl and started playing with her moments after she arrived at the camp. The next afternoon, an adult volunteer wrapped himself around the tiny Amelia and helped her navigate a couple of feet up the climbing wall.

“Usually, everyone makes her feel that she needs help, that she needs to be held,” Arreguin said. “Here, she feels more like she’s equal to everybody.”

Most of the 75 volunteers signed up for Camp Attitude after hearing Whitney speak at their churches. Adult volunteer Kathy Campbell of Ventura said it has been inspiring to watch the disabled children and their families and to see the huggers eagerly take responsibility for the campers.

“This has been indescribable,” Campbell said. “It’s been a humbling experience.”