Camp With a Vision
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Camp With a Vision |
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More Articles About FLC:
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A Camp With a Vision. For Those Who Have None. Continued | ||
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Nearly all of the counselors are from overseas, proof of the long reach of the
Lion’s Club. Working for $125 a week at a summer job doesn’t appeal to many
Americans in their early 20s but for Vogel and her colleagues from Bulgaria,
Russia, Britain and Ireland, it’s an attractive, enriching way to spend the
summer.
“They didn’t tell me: ‘Come to America and get eaten alive.”’ wryly said David
Scarborough of Belfast, whose legs are a three-star guide to excellent eating
spots for chiggers. Scarborough heads up the camp’s arts and crafts program.
“I deliberately chose to work at this camp because it is nonprofit. I’ve done
the Disney Florida. To me, this is much more real and worthwhile.”
Scarborough is watching over a young fellow named Dayton, 8 years old, who wants
to eat Fruit Loops for lunch instead of more wholesome fare. Dayton finally gets
his way and soon has a big multicolored mouthful of cereal. His cheeks are
scarred because he has an unfortunate habit of chewing at himself in his sleep.
“He arrived last Sunday. This kid knows some salty words, I tell you. He’s
taught me a few,” Scarborough said watching the restless Dayton out of the
corner of his eye. “He was frustrated at first, had some hostility, but now he’s
responding. He responds to hugs and cuddles.”
“Where’s my Mom?” Dayton asks, with his rainbow mouth open in Fruit-Loopy
splendor.
“Mom’s at home. You’ll see her soon, Dayton,” Scarborough answers in a soft
Irish brogue.
“Who’s Dayton?” Dayton asks. He’s just sly-looking
enough to make you wonder. Is he having a joke at you expense?
The children stay here six days, arriving on a Sunday and leaving on a Friday.
Each day’s program at the 57-acre camp includes wake-up at 7:30 a.m.,
flag-raising, breakfast, cabin clean-up, with a prize of pizza offered at the
end of the week for the cleanest cabin. Then come morning activities, lunch at
noon, an hour’s rest, canteen, afternoon activities, dinner a 5:30 p.m., evening
of campfires and movies and songs, with lights out at 9:30. The children are so
worn out that they usually are asleep an hour before that, program director
Hundere said.
At the end of the week, the older children attend a kind of dance-prom, while
the younger ones have a carnival. A talent show is staged for the benefit of the
parents, when they come to pick up the children. This year, the camp was open
from June 13 to Aug. 13. And Hundere said it will soon be a year-round getaway.
Fees are $100 per child, probably among the cheapest in the state. The actual
cost is closer to $390, director Cage said but the Lions pick up the difference.
Some children pay nothing, if their parents cannot afford it.
The camp came into being 25 hears ago, thanks to a go-getting Lions’ Club member from Miami named Mel Carver.
Carver’s bust still stands on the camp property,
next to the chapel. |
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“You see all different levels amongst these children. They get into it. They do get things. They definitely pick up on the energy a counselor gives off. We had a puppet show last week, and one child was improvising his story every time he performed. You never knew where he was going to go with it, but it was marvelous to watch his mind unfold. When something like that happens, it makes your day."
Anna
Vogel, Drama Lead |
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The purest testimonial of all comes from Kerri Salter, 8 1/2. from Loxahatchee.
Salter came with her twin brother Scott who is seriously handicapped, as Kerri
herself tells you, in a high, musical voice. She has pale blue eyes and her
vision is seriously impaired, but she speaks calmly, with a vocabulary and
diction well beyond her years, looking at you earnestly through very thick
glasses.
“He is brain-damaged. He can’t see and he can’t talk,” she says, as Scott, blond
and blind, wriggles energetically or the couch. “We were going to be triplets,
but the third baby with us died. If we weren’t born so early, he wouldn’t have
been brain-damaged.”
Scott makes a motorcycle noise with his tongue and lips. Kerri strokes his
forehead and gives him a kiss.
“This is my fourth year here. It’s really fun. I like the pool. I like the
playground, music, gym. It’s my second year here with Scott. I take care of him
a lot. He eats potatoes. Last night he didn’t eat nothing. And we had French
fries, too!’
Scott flails his legs and sighs, a deep sigh.
“I can’t see very well, but Scott acts like he’s a 2-year-old kid. He’s really
special to me.”
“Hee, hee, hee, bee, bee,” Scott says in a
birdlike voice.
“He likes noises,” Kerri explains. “At home I play with him and take him to the
bathroom. I help Mom feed him. Sometimes I get angry. I say, ‘Aw, Mom do I have
to feed him?’ But I do anyway.”
Scott coos to himself and strokes the front of his Chicago White Sox T-shirt.
“He knows my voice. He knows me. He can’t talk, but he likes it when I’m near
him,” Kerri says “He’s my older brother. Two minutes older. He was born two
minutes before me, but I take good care of him, and I love him.”
Lunch is over. The children go off for a nap.
To the west, the afternoon sky is darkening to deep gray-blue, and a tremendous
thunderstorm is
spreading
its wings across the horizon. Some of the
children
won’t see it. Some of those who do won’t
comprehend
it. But pieces of the storm — the thunder, perhaps, or the hiss of the rain, or the smell of the wet oak leaves, or the invisible shock of the faraway lightening — will imprint itself in different ways, on different minds, at summer camp this warm, windy afternoon. |
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Florida Lions Camp
2819 Tiger Lake Road
863-696-1948
website managed by Kristen Frontera KFrontera@gmail.com |
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