Easter Seals camp the ‘chance of a lifetime’
SASKATOON — Jamisan Frerichs is glad the countless surgeries he’s undergone to address his cerebral palsy have improved his physical abilities, but he doesn’t have a lot of time to think about hospitals.
The 11-year-old with the engaging grin is too busy getting on with his life.
There’s wheelchair basketball, drumming in the school band, improving his video game scores and just having fun with his friends.
Being chosen as this year’s Easter Seals ambassador for Saskatoon shocked him, he said.
“It really gets that glow into my heart,” he said.
Frerichs enjoys being in the spotlight and accepted a compliment about his blue and black bleached-tip hair with aplomb, saying he had it done specially for the Monday event.
“The white is not designed to show I’m old,” he quipped.
Frerichs said he is glad to endorse Camp Easter Seal as a place where kids with disabilities can do everything on the program.
“It’s the chance of a lifetime,” he said. “It can be a lot of fun when you get in a cabin with your friends.”
Just hanging out on their own was a blast, he said.
His mother, Raylene Frerichs, said her protective instincts once made her wary of leaving her youngest at camp without her.
“I thought, ‘I can’t just leave my kid where no one understands him like I do,’” she said.
Her trepidation disappeared the day she took Jamisan there and he knew many people who called him by name.
“I had no idea he’s built so many connections. I knew he’d be OK,” she said.
Frerichs will make a great Easter Seals ambassador, said Lori Florence, principal of Holliston School, where the Grade 6 student has been enrolled since kindergarten.
“He is full of charm and personality. Everybody in school knows him. He’s just one of the kids,” Florence said.
“He knows no limits,” she added, recalling that he showed off his breakdancing moves at last year’s school talent show.
Jamisan’s father Darrell Frerichs said he is proud of his son’s eagerness to join every activity that’s presented and to remember everyone he meets.
Camp Easter Seal is marking its 60th year of offering summer fun to children and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities.
Six-day camps run from June through August at Manitou Lake, where boating, water-skiing and tubing provide splashy excitement and the tall view of horseback riding add to the joy of being outdoors with peers and counsellors.
The fully accessible camp has 13 modern cabins. The experience costs about $1,500 per camper, of which there are about 700 per year.
The camp is funded by the provincial and federal governments, the Saskatchewan Abilities Council, Easter Seals and sponsorships from many Saskatchewan businesses and organizations.