Where all kids can feel included

Cindy Brown searched most of California to find the perfect summer camp for her kids. She wasn’t just looking for a good swimming hole or archery range though. She was looking for a place she could send her four children with autism alongside their nonautistic brothers and sisters.

What she found was Jay Nolan Camp, an inclusive summer camp for children with and without disabilities.

“We’re a different kind of family,” said Brown, who with her partner, Audrey Kellogg, has provided foster care for 18 special-needs children since 1988.

Though the camp is more than 400 miles away from their home in El Dorado County, east of Sacramento, Brown will drive nine of her children down to Teresita Pines in Angeles National Forest for a third summer in a row.

About 100 campers, ages 8 to 15, attend Jay Nolan Camp, which takes place for two weeklong sessions in August. Jay Nolan provides year-round programming that helps enable children with developmental disorders, such as mental retardation and autism, to live integrated lives.

The camp’s ratio of children with disabilities to those without is 40 to 60.

“For our kids, who are used to being singled out as different, it’s really cool for them to be at camp and not have to worry about what anyone else thinks,” Brown said.

Though the nine Brown-Kellogg family members still see one another at meals during camp, they split into different cabins each year to make new friends.

“It’s more fun that way,” said Lauren Brown-Kellogg, 13. “It’s actually really cool because we get to learn what their disabilities are -- and abilities are -- and we get to meet new people.”

The main purpose of camp is to provide a totally integrated environment that helps each camper develop better social skills, says camp director Josue Garcia.

“It is so amazing because we can have a kid that is a mathematical genius but his social skills are bad,” he said.

Social problems associated with developmental disability, such as frustration and aggression, are greatly improved by integrating campers without special needs, Garcia said.

“It’s the kids without disabilities that get the most out of it.”

Group activities include swimming, hiking and the summer camp staple, capture the flag.

“It’s the same activities for all. If they’re playing soccer, they’re all playing soccer,” Garcia said.

Thanks to the $1.7 million raised last year by the Los Angeles Times Summer Camp Campaign, about 8,000 children will go to camp in Southern California this summer.

The annual campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, a fund of the McCormick Foundation, which matches all donations at 50 cents on the dollar. Unless requested otherwise, the Los Angeles Times Family Fund makes every effort to acknowledge donations of $100 or more received by Sept. 1 in the newspaper.

All donations will be acknowledged by mail in three to four weeks. Donations are tax deductible as permitted by law. Addresses will not be released or published. For more information, call (800) LA TIMES, Ext. 75771, or e-mail familyfund@latimes.com.

Mail donations using the form above (do not send cash) or donate online now at latimes.com/summercamp.

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nicole.loomis@latimes.com