GREAT MEMORIES
Joanna Miedzik looks back fondly on her days at Easter Seals Camp.
For a child, going to camp can be an exhilarating and important life experience. For children with disabilities, camp can also be a place where they can feel they completely fit in. Those were some of the thoughts that stirred in Joanna Miedzik’s mind when the Star approached her with a blast from a past, a photo from our Fresh Air Fund archive taken in 1991, when she was 14.
The shot was taken at an Easter Seals camp at Blue Mountain, which was run for children with disabilities. Miedzik, who was born with spina bifida, had no recollection of the photo — or even any idea that she had been featured in the newspaper back then — but it brought back great memories.
“That was an awesome photo. I mean, you can’t really see my face, but it’s awesome. I know exactly where that was taken, I just don’t remember it at all,” said Miedzik, 41, who now works at Holland Bloorview hospital.
“It was a two-week camp, where you could sign up your child who had a disability. It was one of the best experiences of my life. As a kid, I waited to go every summer. That photo was taken by the flagpole, which was in front of me. I remember the grass, and I remember the water, and how peaceful it was.
“It was just really, really good memories of your childhood, and being yourself, and not caring about the world, right? Because we were all the same. We all had our differences, which made us all the same,” she said.
Miedzik went to the camp for five summers. The Fresh Air Fund had just started supporting the Easter Seals Camps the year the photo was taken, and remain among the camps that receive funding support from the charity. The former camper remembers the activities — and how, like all good camps, there was what was on the schedule and also all the good stuff that wasn’t planned.
“There were things like singing and dancing to arts and crafts. We did performances. I learned how to be in a pool on my own, that’s where I learned how to swim. That’s where I learned how to put on makeup,” she recalled.
“I would get letters from (my parents), once a week, and there were times I was really homesick, and there were times that I was out there, socializing and building social skills, and on many levels that’s huge for any child growing up that has a disability.
“Social skills are so crucial — that’s where everything begins, because you have to grow up to be an advocate for yourself and be independent … So when you’re thrown in this two-week thing, you are basically thrown into the fire and you’ve got to figure it out, because Mommy and Daddy are not there.”
Since those days, Miedzik has become an advocate, and has often spoke to the media about the importance of being physically active for people with disabilities.
“I do think it’s important, it’s really hard. A lot of these fitness things are not geared for us, so there’s not a lot of things out there for us. There are things that can interest me in my mind, that’s not physically limited, but it doesn’t fit my body that is physically limited, so my mind and my body they’re not friends, so they don’t match each other, so I have to figure out ways to make them work together,” she said. “It’s hard to find activities that you can actually physically do and enjoy.”
For kids who are not sure about going to camp, she is emphatic in her support for it.
“This is probably the best gift you can give to your child because it’s your first trip towards independence and freedom, as a test run for yourself,” she said.
“It would be a great experience for every child to move forward in their social skills and for their self-esteem too. Because it’s a really great place to learn what your skills are, which makes you feel better about yourself.”