Kamp Dovetail

Brei had a fabulous 2 day camp experience at Rocky Fork Lake in Hillsboro, Ohio, home of Kamp Dovetail. This is her 2nd of many more years attending this wonderful camp for children and young adults with medical needs and developmental disabilities. This camp blows my mind. I mean, it literally takes my breath away. I wish I had a good picture of the entrance into this camp. I'm going to try to give you a visual of the depth of human kindness that takes place each summer at Rocky Fork. When you enter into the campsite the entire camp is set up so there are the week long overnight campers which are age 9 and up and then there is the day camp section which is for the kiddos ages 4 - 9. So you walk past the campsite of the overnight camp to get to the day camp. This is when I cry everytime. There are more than 600 volunteers that are working with these kids. Each camper has a volunteer with them. Volunteers range from age 14 and up. To be a volunteer at this camp isn't like you just show up and get a kid assigned to you and you are off. Oh no, it's a year long process of training and learning about the person you will be assigned to. So, during this week, you will see 14 year olds changing trach ties, doing tube feeds, pushing around wheelchairs, assisting in the restroom, pretty much anything you can think of, these people have been trained to do it. That's what takes my breath away. Then it gets better....the tents....everywhere...tents and campers. What a site. All of it donated for these kids. So people just bring their campers and set up for kids that cannot stay in tents because of their medical conditions. There are also nurses that volunteer to come up at night and set up equipment for the kids that are on oxygen and other various things. I'm getting teary just thinking about all of this. The kids get to ride horses everyday. People with horses just show up with their trailers and spend the entire week assisting kids onto the horses and walking them around. I hope they get as much out of it as I do. Anyone with a child with a disability (or 2 or 3 different abilities as I like to call it :) knows that horses are very therapeutic. Watching kids on those horses, seeing their faces light up like you just gave them the world, it's priceless to watch I hope the volunteers know how appreciated they are for taking time out of their lives to give this gift to the kids. The campers also get to go on boat rides. Mostly the retired folk that live on the lake are the ones who volunteer for this. They dock their boats and load up the kids and off they go. Each kid gets a turn at the wheel. For me, this is the best part of the camp because for my Brei, it's like you just gave her ice cream (which she can't have). So to be able to give her something that makes her as happy as I am eating ice cream on a hot day, it's simply fabulous. Day campers get to end each day with lots of swimming. This year, Brei was more independent in the water and it's where her body works the best so we let her swim for over 1 1/2 hours. She's also very fascinated with tattoos for some reason. This started about a month ago. She noticed after getting out of the pool that someone was doing face painting. She was a bit curious about what was going on so she walked over and just stared for a minute. When she saw the finished product it was like having a tattoo. She did a very "typical" thing and cut in line so she could be next. I was so shocked, my child went and got in line...even though she cut, if you knew her and her delays and stuff you'd get what I'm saying here. She understood the concept of the line, then cut, to get her face painted. There are just so many accomplishments there. One takes these things for granted....I don't. The sensory issues alone make her not want anyone to touch her face, but to have someone touch it with a brush. This is just so fabulous! So, she got 2 "tattoos" and I was so happy to see how happy she was. This was the last activity til next year. I cannot wait to see all the changes that will take place when I reflect on next years experience at the happiest place on earth...Kamp Dovetail.