Saratoga Springs: Camp Abilities returns with new activities
Skidmore's newest facility will be used.
Camp Abilities Saratoga comes back to the campus of Skidmore College this year with two new programs: adapted tennis and board gaming. The camp, organized by the nonprofit Camp Abilities Saratoga, the Saratoga Springs Lions Club and Skidmore College, gives blind and low-vision children the opportunity to try all sorts of sports and other activities, adapted to their needs. They practice Judo, go swimming, ride tandem bikes with a sighted person, and go bowling and ice skating.
They play “beep baseball,” a game like the American classic, but it uses a beeping ball and buzzing bases to help the players maneuver around the field, a press release from Skidmore says.
“Camp Abilities is such an incredible program, and every year I feel reenergized by having the campers and staff at Skidmore,” says Megan Buchanan, senior associate director of athletics at Skidmore College in a statement.
The college said in the release that they are especially happy to use the McCaffery-Wagman Tennis and Wellness Center this year. The new center opened in January. Inside, the kids will play adapted tennis. The game uses specially designed tennis balls, which are larger, lighter, and contain sound-emitting materials to support orientation and timing. Other adaptations include a smaller court with tactile boundary lines and modified rules based on athletes’ visual abilities, the Skidmore press release says.
The quieter acoustics and absence of wind make the new center “ideal” for the campers to play, the press materials say.
Camp Abilities Saratoga is the nonprofit organization created by the local Lions Club to run the camp of the same name. Its board is largely made up of Lions Club members.
The camp was founded in 2013 as the Lions club was looking for more ways to help the blind and visually impaired. The Lions clubs internationally focus on the needs of the blind.
The local club went to other parts of the state to see the camps in action in 2012 before starting their own camp, said Jim Edwards, a local Lion and the president of the Camp Abilities Saratoga board.
“While you think it’s an overwhelming disability, perhaps, when you try to envision it [being blind] yourself, these kids have been dealing with this and just take on life as it comes,” Edwards said.
“They’re charged up because they’re in a world where they’re the norm, as opposed to people with sight,” Edwards continued. “Lions club members are just very inspired by the attitude and the way the children just grab life and go with it.”
He said he finds inspiration in both the campers and the sighted counselors, most of whom are college students studying in the field of adaptive physical education.
The concept of Camp Abilities was started in the 1990s by SUNY Brockport Prof. Lauren Lieberman. It spread through western New York, and the local Saratoga Springs Lions Club brought it to the eastern end of the state, Edwards said.
The Camp Abilities program is now found throughout the United States in South America and in Europe. Brockport now offers a masters-level certificate in adaptive physical education.
Participation in the camp is limited to 26 children. Since they are blind or have low vision, generally they are referred to the program by teachers or social services.
Editor’s Note: Steve Thurston is a member of the Saratoga Springs Lions Club.