Kids explore sports camp
Summer camp can be lifechanging for any kid, but for a group of campers staying at Skidmore College this week, the next six days will unquestionably be some they’ll never forget.
Camp Abilities Saratoga, which started Sunday, is a oneweek overnight developmental sports camp for children and teens who are blind, visually impaired or deaf blind. Its slogan is “a loss of sight, never a loss of vision.”
An international program, the local camp was started last summer by the Saratoga Springs Lions Club and saw great success.
For this year’s campers, the week will include a variety of activities on and off the Skidmore campus including swimming, judo, tandem cycling, beep baseball, ice skating at the Weibel Avenue Rink, an equestrian session at Rolling Oak Stables, paddleboarding at Brown’s Beach, bowling at Saratoga Strike Zone, a picnic in the Saratoga Spa State Park and even a duathlon.
In its second year, the program welcomed 25 campers on Sunday, an increased number from last summer, when 18 campers attended. This year, about half of the original campers are returning, proving that Camp Abilities was something they enjoyed.
“I just love this place,” said 12-year-old Chris Baker from South Glens Falls. Thinking back on his experience at Camp Abilities Saratoga last summer, he said. “It was awesome.” His favorite part of the camp last year was swimming.
Baker returned to camp this year with a great surprise for his fellow campers and the camp staff. Throughout the year he raised $860 by collecting bottles and cans, and donated it to Camp Abilities Saratoga to buy new equipment and enhance programming.
Isaiah Coldwell, 11, of Troy, also returned to the camp this summer, and he’s most looking forward to paddleboarding at Brown’s Beach. “Paddleboarding is my favorite thing,” he said Sunday right after checking out his dorm room.
The majority of the participants are from the Capital Region, including West Sand Lake, Watervliet, Argyle, Albany, Cohoes and Averill Park, but some come from farther away to be part of the fun.
Paula Kissinger, 15, lives in Boulder, Colorado and comes to Camp Abilities Saratoga because her grandparents live in Ballston Spa. Kissinger said she likes the upstate New York camp because it’s intense. “A lot of camps that I’ve been to, they kind of baby you, and this one they don’t,” she said Sunday just before the camp’s opening ceremony. Kissinger particularly enjoys equestrian, judo and swimming. As a result of her time at Camp Abilities Saratoga last summer, Kissinger joined a swim team back home.
Camp Abilities Saratoga president Joanne Sole hopes new campers will “learn that they are able to be as much a part of the sports world and community as their sighted peers,” just like Kissinger did
Thanks to the Saratoga Springs Lions Club, neigh- boring Lions Clubs and other donors, all campers are able to attend Camp Abilities Saratoga for free. Putting the week-long camp on this year cost between $75,000 and $80,000, a camp official estimated. Each kid, ages 10 to 16, has a one-on-one counselor for the duration of the camp and sports specialists adapt popular sports to the children’s conditions. Three nurses are on staff at all times, too. Volunteer counselor Gabbi Cooper, a Glens Falls resident and student at the University at Albany, said she’s most looking forward to “seeing all the different little success throughout the week — just those type of little moments.” Throughout the week, anyone is welcome to visit and see what Camp Abili- ties is all about. “If you do, you get kind of hooked,” said immediate past president of Camp Abilities Richard Reeves. “These kids are great kids.”
In addition to allowing kids the opportunity to compete in sports, sometimes for the very first time, “There’s also tremendous socialization,” Reeves said. “They make friends. They support each other. It’s really cool.”
In just one week, there’s no doubt about it, Reeves said, “You see a change in these kids.”
Furthermore, “It does empower them,” Reeves said. Considering that many of the kids have never been away overnight without family before, “They realize they can do things that normally around home they can’t. They get a little bit more independent. They live in a dorm. They eat at the dorm. It shows them that if they want to go to college, they can, and they can survive,” Reeves continued. “We try to encourage them that the world is their oyster.”
For more information on Camp Abilities Saratoga and a complete schedule of events, visit campabilitiessaratoga.org or www.facebook.com/CampAbilitiesSaratoga. To contact Camp Abilities Saratoga email info@ campabilitiessaratoga.org or call 290-7050.