At 8, a chance to be ‘King’ in the woods
Sean LeCaine can do a mean impression of Elvis: On the spot, he can curl his lip, put his hands on his hips and shuffle his feet in a wave-like motion.
His impersonation is so good that his audience is willing to ignore the fact that Sean, 8, bears little resemblance to the King -- he’s got a mohawk haircut, darkly tanned skin and a few teeth that are just shy of being fully in place.
“He wants to do that in the talent show at camp this summer,” Sean’s mother, Alice LeCaine, says of her son’s skill. Sean just may get his chance to don his blue suede shoes in a few weeks, when he’ll head up to Jay Nolan Camp, a program that welcomes children with and without developmental disabilities for a week in the Teresita Pines of Wrightwood.
“Camp is gonna be fun. I like going in the woods because it’s fun to play hide-and-seek,” Sean says. “We’re gonna stay up all night eating hot Cheetos.”
“What about bears?” cautions camp director Andrew Epstein.
“Uh-oh, bears?” Sean says, his eyes widening.
Despite his trepidation, Sean has always been an adventurer -- skateboarding around his home, jumping on his bed and even sneaking out late at night to his family’s treehouse.
“One night I couldn’t find him anywhere,” Alice LeCaine explains. “A few minutes later, I hear a knock on the door and it’s Sean. He just shrugged and said he’d been hiding out in the treehouse, staring at the moon.”
Sean was born with an addiction to drugs from his biological mother. After some time as his foster mother, Alice adopted Sean when he was 15 months old. Today, Sean lives with Alice and his six sisters in Covina. Unlike at home, he’ll be able to find plenty of guys to hang out with at Jay Nolan, where he and 100 other campers, ages 8 to 14, will spend six days partaking in outdoor theater, a top-rope tree climb and sing-alongs.
The safe environment at camp allows campers with disabilities, such as cerebral palsy or mental retardation, to participate in what Epstein calls a “typical” camp experience.
“The dance is one of the most beautiful things,” he says. “We don’t play any slow songs, and kids just forget who’s shy or who is ‘cool’ or ‘hot.’ ”
“Camp gives kids an opportunity to confront stereotypes at a young age,” Epstein adds. “The nondisabled kids may have seen one or two challenged kids in a grocery store before and it can be uncomfortable. But at camp, they’re seeing that it’s basically no big deal. It’s our own utopian world up there.”
Because Alice has a prosthetic leg, Sean says he’s not nervous about encountering campers who may appear physically different from himself. “Yeah, it’s like no big deal,” he shrugs. “Man, I’m gonna make so many friends.”
Jay Nolan Community Services is one of 60 organizations receiving financial support this year through the Los Angeles Times Summer Camp Campaign. More than 8,000 underprivileged children will go to camp this summer, thanks to $1.5 million raised last year. The annual fundraising campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which this year will match the first $1.1 million in contributions at 50 cents on the dollar. Donations are tax-deductible. For more information, call (213) 237-5771. To make donations by credit card, go to latimes.com/summercamp. To send checks, use the attached coupon. Do not send cash. Unless requested otherwise, gifts of $50 or more will be acknowledged in The Times.
