My son, Brock Ewing, attended your summer camp and he enjoyed it to the fullest! I was so pleased by your staff, activities planned, and how clean and nice the campus was. The staff was so caring and sweet—I could tell you guys love what you do and it made me feel comfortable leaving my son in another state.
Brock couldn’t stop talking about the great things he experienced; how nice people were to him; how he met new, cool friends; and how he learned new stuff and taught others. He was so happy it brought me to tears. So, I want to thank all of your staff and sponsors for making our lives better! This is a special program that I will rave about! I appreciate you giving my son this amazing experience!!!
Sincerely,
A pleased mother, Dawn Wolfe
By Leslie Hoskins, COMS
EXHAUSTING! If I had to describe Summer Experience Camp in just one word, it would be “exhausting.” However, it’s more than that—it’s meaningful, impactful and a great experience for campers and instructors. As instructors, camp allows us the opportunity to facilitate life-changing experiences for teens and create an atmosphere where being visually impaired is “normal.”
I enjoy watching the campers arrive on the first day full of nervous energy… and with their phones glued to their hands. By day two or three, they start to care less about their phones and more about who will be their partner for night lesson or how their team can win table wars. The shift happens quickly, and before we know it, lifelong friendships have been formed.
Camp is full of fun activities like allowing campers to ride a tandem bike for the first time or challenge themselves by climbing a rock wall. It’s amazing how a group of kids who have never met before can become close friends within a matter of days. They quickly build bonds and support one another, constantly cheering and pushing each other to try new things.
Talent show night is easily the best night of camp. The kids practice throughout the week and often group talents are formed. We’ve had singers, pianists, comedians and even a beat boxer. Confidence is at an all-time high, which makes for some outstanding performances.
The last day of camp is always bittersweet; instructors are excited to catch up on the sleep we’ve missed throughout the week, but we will miss hearing the giggles in the hallways and the chants on the buses. One good thing is that we often see campers again since many come back to Leader Dog for Accelerated O&M Training or Guide Dog Training. We’ve had the opportunity to catch up with campers, sometimes years later, and are delighted to hear that they kept in contact with friends made at camp. This makes all the exhausting days and sleepless nights of camp worth it.
Ashley, center, at camp in 2016 Two days after her 16th birthday, Ashley Eisenmenger came to Leader Dog for the first time for Summer Experience Camp. What followed was a week of new experiences that changed her life. “I rode my first tandem bicycle there,” she says. “I attribute my love of cycling to that, which led to me competing in triathlons.”
The opportunities that Ashley received while at Leader Dog that summer helped her to realize that just because she is visually impaired, she does not have to limit herself or her expectations. Her time at camp represented such an important change that she soon found herself coming back to Leader Dog as a volunteer camp counselor. “It’s one of the highlights of my summer,” she says. “Some of the kids are super confident in what they can do and some of them, it’s the first time they’ve been around other kids their age who have visual impairments.”
Now in college, Ashley is majoring in communications and considering graduate school for sports psychology or looking for a job in her field once she graduates, preferably in the nonprofit sector. She has spent more time behind the scenes at a nonprofit than most others her age since Ashley is a member of Leader Dog’s Voice of the Client Committee. “It’s cool to be on the ground level of all that’s going on here and get an insider perspective,” she says. “It’s reaffirmed the genuine care the Leader Dog staff have for the clients and the dogs.”
When she isn’t studying or volunteering at Leader Dog, Ashley trains as a competitive triathlete and endurance runner, qualifying for the Boston Marathon in 2017.
Ashley’s experiences at Leader Dog and her guidance of other teens at Summer Experience Camp have contributed to her confidence, and she sees similar changes in the campers coming here for the first time. “It’s a really cool thing to see the kids realize that there don’t have to be limits.” Her message to other young people with visual impairments is to not let difficulty turn into impossibility. “I run triathlons tied to another person, and that’s not how that’s normally done,” she says. “The best advice I could offer is to understand that while the ways you do things might be different, don’t be afraid to try.”
