Easter Seals Camp Horizon is hosting a special March of Dimes Canada Summer Camp in Bragg Creek Aug. 25 to 28, giving kids and teens who use communication devices the opportunity to participate in a special overnight camp experience.
“This is a camp that is tailored for them, that will facilitate them using their speech generating devices and giving them a chance to just chat and hang out with their peers,” said Valerie Arbeau, who attended a similar camp in Idaho with her 14-year old daughter before working to bring an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ACC) Camp experience to Alberta.
Medically complex children don’t often have the opportunity to participate in summer camps, Arbeau said, so she and her husband made the decision to take a family trip to Idaho to give their daughter the chance to attend an AAC Camp.
Arbeau’s daughter was initially given a year to live when she was born with cerebral palsy.
“She is unable to speak, she’s fed via tube and she is wheelchair-bound,” Arbeau said.
“But at an early age, we recognized that she had some intelligence to work with, so we’ve been working at challenging her since then.”
Arbeau’s daughter started using the communication device in 2010.
After seeing her daughter interacting with other AAC users at camp, Arbeau was inspired to bring a similar camp to Alberta. While she admitted it was initially “kind of a dream,” she said there’s been a great deal of interest in the camp so far.
“Easter Seals came to mind right away because they are wheelchair accessible and offer camps during the summer. We decided this would be something that wouldn’t be too new for them,” Arbeau said.
“We are even bringing the director from the camp in Idaho here to facilitate our first camp.”
Registration is $595, and Arbeau said 19 participants have already signed up. The camp is open to allow families and caregivers to participate and learn, with speech language pathologists and technicians on-site.
“We were blown away by what the kids can get from this camp, and it’s not just the children – parents can network, meet with other parents to talk and support each other, as well. It’s mutually beneficial,” Arbeau said.
“We feel so privileged to bring something like this from Idaho to here, to let Albertan children experience what it’s like to attend a camp that is truly tailored to them.”
For more information or to register, visit marchofdimes.ca
