At summer camp for the blind: Reading, science, swimming and more

Nine-year-old Mark Lopez’s fingers flit across the pages of Dr. Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat.” This version is pure white — no pictures — but Mark sees everything vividly. He says his favorite letter in the alphabet is T because the raised dots of Braille make it look “just like a bird.”

It’s Mark’s first year attending the Junior Blind of America Summer Enrichment Program of Los Angeles, which is supported partly by the Los Angeles Times Family Fund. On Junior Blind’s campus in the View Park-Windsor Hills neighborhood of L.A., Mark looks forward to hanging out with 45 other 8- to 13-year-old children, half of whom are sighted and half of whom are visually impaired or blind. Ninety percent are from low-income communities.

Every summer since 2008, the program has combined reading and science with a healthy dose of swimming, games, arts and crafts over dual two-and-a-half-week sessions.

Sometimes protective parents are hesitant to get visually impaired and blind children involved in summer activities, said Joan Marason, the Junior Blind’s director of the wellness and enrichment programs. But here, all have the opportunity to play safely and learn together through activities adapted for them.

“There’s no stigma attached,” Marason said. “They have the freedom to really be themselves.”

Mark said he’d wouldn’t want to miss a day.

“I don’t want to miss the Junior Blind summer school because I know it will be lots of fun,” Mark said.

Mark has taken care of the class tarantula, Wilbur (“he’s fluffy just like a hamster”) and danced (not his favorite), and he’s also had the opportunity to learn about Helen Keller during daily story time by reading aloud, talking about the text and writing responses with his friends.

Lately he’s been working on becoming proficient in reading Braille contractions, shortened spellings of words, so he can breeze through books.

At Junior Blind, Mark and his classmates have the support to do that, as well as access to learning tools they don’t readily have outside of special resource classrooms at school. A video magnifier enlarges print texts and an embosser converts them to Braille. A Victor Reader Stream works like a Kindle for people who are visually impaired, letting the kids download audio books and descriptive movies.

Reading has been important to Mark, who was born blind, since he started to learn at age 3. He said it helps him expand what he knows about the world, as does the Junior Blind program.

“I just like to learn new things because it makes you smart,” Mark said. “You should try it sometime. People will call you ‘smarty pants.’”

The Summer Camp Campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, a McCormick Foundation Fund. The campaign raises contributions to support programs that provide thousands of Southern California’s at-risk children ages 7 to 17 with enriching, educational and fun camp experiences. Donations are tax-deductible as permitted by law and matched at 50 cents on the dollar. Donor information is not traded or published without permission. Donate online at latimes.com/donate or by phone at (800) 518-3975. All gifts will receive a written acknowledgment.

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