MTB Special Report: "Integration" Takes on a New Meaning at Camp Manito

Step onto UCP's beautiful campus anytime during July or August and you'll find yourself in a place fulled with positive energy, big smiles, and lots of fun. Well, maybe just more than usual. It's time for Camp Manito!

UCP's Camp Manito offers a unique experience - a summer camp that allows kids to be kids - no matter their physical difficulties. From its wheelchair accessible pool (which is so cool, by the way) to its ramped walkways and entryways, the campus is an accessible paradise. Itself the product of multiple renovations over a hundred years, the campus won architecture awards for accessibility. The campus itself feels like a retreat; I hardly believed that I was in the middle of Wilmington.

Don Moore

My friend Don Moore, the Executive Director of Client Assistance Program (CAP), a program of UCP, invited me to visit Camp Manito and do a special feature. I was more than happy to accommodate him, though as stated in previous posts, my personal life got in the way of a timely publication.

At Camp Manito, swimming is the biggest and the best activity. The kids spend most of the morning splashing around in the pool to their hearts' content. I began thinking about the endless summer days I spent swimming in my public pool, taking such a simple pleasure for granted. Camp Manito uses a waterproof plastic wheelchair to help kids in and out of the pool.

After lunch, arts and crafts, music, and nature fill the rest of the campers' time. My friend Don was Music Director when he worked for Camp Manito; before that, he was a camper's assistant, and before that, he was a camper himself. "My big thing with camp is the 'inclusion' factor," Don said, "The campers' sisters and brothers wanted to come to camp as well, so we invited them to join." The camp is fully integrated, meaning it is open to all kids - those with physical challenges and those without - and the integration "takes out the medical factor and lets kids just be kids."

Camp Director Jessica Ogden

Camp Manito runs for six weeks throughout the summer and is available to children ages 3 to 21 (with disabilities) and ages 5 to 13 (without disabilities). Many 14-year-olds go on to become camper's assistants; some are recruited as paid counselors. The experience is invaluable for them, Don says, "They have 7 to 8 years experience in the field by age 22."

Kaz Sortino (who I interviewed at the Diamond Dinner), served this year as the Activities Director. He has been working on enhancing the camp's activities, including a field trip to a "Can Do" playground and sports activities. Kaz is a former camper and an advocate for the camp; he started a campaign to extend the camp by two weeks (it was cut due to budget reasons). Others have put their money to work for the camp. Peter Collins, a UCP employee, promised a $2,500 donation if UCP could find a way to stretch the camp another week. UCP found a way to do it.

Camp Manito's dedicated camp counselors

It's Camp Director Jessica Ogden's first year in her position. She is a student at Eastern University studying elementary education and special education, and knew someone on UCP's Board who recruited her for Camp Director. With her first week under her belt, she said, "We're finally settling down." She took deep breaths between her hurried words. "The campers have packed days." I asked her how her experience at Camp Manito has changed her life, and she says this experience offers her great insight for her career in teaching. She loves "making people who don't feel included feel included." After our quick interview, she took off to attend to her duties... I wasn't offended.

Grace

I was able to meet some of the campers during their lunch in the cafeteria. Grace, who had great charisma and charm and begged to be interviewed. Grace is confined to a wheelchair but told me that she has been coming to Camp Manito for three years. She's from Avondale, Pennsylvania (just across the border), and has one goal: to run the camp one day. She loves to swim.

Khalil, who has also attended the camp for three years, loves the sports and arts and crafts activities. Like Grace, he loves to swim. He's a student at Mount Pleasant High School, and he and his two siblings have joined him at Camp Manito. He has a bright smile and is thrilled to have the opportunity to enjoy camp.

Khalil

I was a camper, a junior counselor, and a senior counselor at multiple day and overnight camps. During my visit to Camp Manito, I realized this camp was just like any other and that the kids were having just as much fun as at other camps. Maybe more. Perhaps that's the point.

Thank you, Don, and Bill McCool, for the opportunity to see the good you do for our local children.