FARMINGTON – Super heroes took over St. Joseph’s Parish Hall on Tuesday.
The heroes raced from one activity to another, building forts, creating crafts, with a water balloon challenge in their near future.
The activity was non-stop for the both the campers and the camp counselors dressed as their favorite super hero on Super Hero Day at the University of Maine at Farmington’s Autism Summer Camp program.
The annual five-week summer camp counts more than 200 children with autism spectrum disorders as having attended since its start in 2002. Some of the campers have returned to the two-week session for multiple years.
Offered in an unique partnership between UMF and the Autism Society of Maine, the day camp not only provides its campers with two weeks of carefree fun, it gives college students serving as counselors invaluable experience, course credits and now a $500 scholarship.
In a grant from the Autism Society of Maine, the scholarships are available for undergraduate students interested in taking UMF’s summer psychology course taught by Joel King, a psychology professor.
The summer program provides college students or paraprofessionals field experience and 2 credits towards their degrees and/or professions.
This year’s camp runs until Aug. 20 and is for children 5 to 15 years old. The college course begins the first week with counselor training provided by professionals currently working in the field. The next two weeks the camp opens for the older campers and is followed by two-week session for those 5 to 10 years old. Each camper is matched with a counselor.
“It’s the best of both worlds for both campers and students,” King said. “Children with autism lead very structured lives in order to develop important skills. The summer camp allows them to just relax, make friends and have fun. And the students working as counselors love working with the kids and grow in confidence and skills before my eyes.”
The camp’s director, Hattie DeRaps said the college students are carefully paired with their camper. The parish hall at Middle and Quebec streets, provides several rooms of various activities with a precise schedule posted and met each day. There are many field trips that include bowling, swimming at a water park or a lake, hiking, and going to the local movie theater.
“The community is really supportive of the camp,” King said. For instance, the Narrow Gauge Cinemas will turn down the sound a bit and keep the lights up low and allows the campers to enter the theater early for convenience.
The best part of the camp is that the campers can be themselves, that autism is “not unusual here,” King said. The camp provides a break from the often intensive therapy so they “can be like us. When they’re here, they can enjoy being themselves.”
Camper Adam, of Winthrop, has attended the camp since he was 4 years old. Now 12 and on Tuesday looking a lot like Mario Brothers’ Luigi was busy building a fort. He said it’s one of his favorite things to do at the camp, as is bowling.
Nearby, UMF senior Tyler Brown, an education and psychology major, grins as he watches the campers work together to built the most awesome fort ever. Brown, wearing his super hero outfit he created last night said the camp counselor work has been for him personally “a great learning experience,” he said.
For the campers, “this is a place they can go that’s unrestricted fun and that doesn’t happen a lot for them. We’re not here to modify their behavior, just let them play,” Brown said.
This year only seven college students signed up for the course. Since the match is one to one, camper to counselor, there were many children left on a waiting list who can’t attend unless more college students take the course.
A few years back, 15 college students took the course and 15 campers were able to attend each session. King said the summer schedule is difficult for the many UMF students who need to work as much as they can in order to earn enough for another semester. The idea of the $500 scholarship is to offer help in defraying the cost of the course and hopefully allow more college students to enroll next summer.
DeRaps noted that the camp counselor training provides learning skills towards understanding autism whether working in the field or working in the community.
The camp is free for children to attend. Funding for the camp is raised each year through a day of benefit walks held around the state. One of the walks is held at the Farmington Fairgrounds towards the end of April.
“Everything that’s raised at the walk goes to the camp,” DeRaps said.
The scholarship grant funds awarded to UMF, administered through the Autism Society of Maine was provided through the Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism.
Read more about the Autism Society of Maine here.
I wish there was more things like this available to older children and adults with autism spectrum disorder
While I do really appreciate everything this camp provides for kids with autism, I find it disheartening that there is no such available camp for children that are lower functioning. If the child has “too high of a need” such as not being toilet trained, this service will not welcome them. The parents with children that are most severely affected are left to find respit services for themselves.
To shed a positive comment, awesome job to the few students who took on this course and made the lives of those students just a bit brighter for the summer. Great job and accomplishment of those involved!
A needed and wonderful addition to our community.
@ Larry, have you tried Pine Tree Camp in Rome they offer overnight camp for lots of different disabilities even children that are not potty trained!
@ Erica
Thanks so much for that info, I will be sure to look them up!!
LL
I was a student working for this program years ago (under the leadership of Dr. Susan Anzivino that year) it was really one of the most powerful and fun experiences ever! Wish more students would take the leap!
Our son attended Camp Summit the first year it started and the 6 consecutive years after. 2003-2009. Susan Anzivino was the director and Hattie De Raps was her assistant. This is a great program as sometimes it is hard to find programs where our kids can find friends to connect with and this was incouraged and supported at Camp Summit. This is one of the most positive programs he ever attended and we look back fondly on those years!