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Conference camp embraces some special kids
Drew Callaghan, 7, gets a hug from his aide, Becky Lahaie, after a dip in the Pilgrim Day Camp pool.
September, 2001
Seven-year-old Drew Callaghan might have spent his summer at home with little to do except watch television. Instead, he spent two months swimming, playing games and making friends at Pilgrim Day Camp.
It would be just another typical summer camp story – except that Drew is not a typical kid. He is autistic.
“He would not do well at home, he wouldn’t know what to do. He wouldn’t just join in and play with other kids,” said Drew’s mother, Cathy Callaghan. Drew’s autistic spectrum him to be behind other children his age in social and communication skills.
“He needed to do something this summer, and camp has been wonderful,” she said. “He spends the rest of the year trying to interact with peers in school, so why not do the same in the summertime?”
Drew is one of a number of special children who joined the 1,650 campers at Pilgrim Day Camp this summer. The camp is a program of the Massachusetts Conference and located at the Framingham center.
“Kids who struggle in other areas of their lives strive here,” said Camp Director Jon Kirby. “It’s nice to be able to be a place where the kids can do well.”
Kirby said the number of campers with special needs has been going up as word spreads among parents of special needs children that the camp is willing to accommodate them when possible.
This was Drew’s third summer at Pilgrim Day Camp. It was the first year for a second autistic child, whose family decided to try the camp on Callaghan’s recommendation.
“That child had gone to a camp for children for special needs, and did not have a very good experience there. So I said ‘have you considered a regular camp for him?’” Callaghan said. “I don’t think camp is for everyone with special needs, but for kids who spend the whole year interacting with other kids, it’s great.”
Callaghan said the staff is what has made Drew’s experiences so positive.
“One counselor, after she realized he was going to be in her group, went into an online chat room to talk to parents of children with autistic spectrum, to learn more about it,” she said. “Leave it to these counselors to do something like that.”
Both Drew and the other autistic child were accompanied at camp by one-on-one aides, who were provided by their families. Those aides were integrated into the rest of the camp staff, allowing them to blend in with the other counselors. The aides were able to encourage the children to take part in social situations and could modify activities where necessary.
Kirby said for those particular children, having the one-on-one attention was a requirement for them to attend camp.
For other campers with learning or medical disabilities, he said, the low camper-to-staff ratio allows counselors to give special attention where it is needed.
Kirby stresses that camp is not for everyone, and said the camp has had to turn down children whose medical conditions would have created safety issues.
“Parents need to know that we are a physical, outdoor place,” he said. That, Callaghan says, is just what her son needed.
“The exercise, all that walking from camp site to camp site – he needs that to make his brain work better for him. So this is the perfect place for him.