Every Kid Deserves The Chance to Go to Camp!

A happy camper takes a ride on one of the camp horses.

Hey, parents! Are you tired of sending your child with special needs to the sitter every day during the summer? Do you ever wish there was somewhere else they could go that offers them more options than sitting in front of the television?

Camp Barnabas, a nonprofit Christian summer camp for children with special needs located in the Ozark mountains of Southwest Missouri understands that every child, regardless of the severity of his or her diagnosis should have the chance to attend summer camp just like kids without disabilities, and just have fun being a kid.

Barnabas runs its summer camp program from approximately late May to mid August every summer with nine week long sessions welcoming campers ages seven to adult with everything from autism spectrum disorders including Asperger's Syndrome, physical disabilities, medical conditions like epilepsy, cancer, and cystic fibrosis,visual and hearing impairments, and many more.

Plus, Camp Barnabas understands that disabilities can affect the family as a whole and not just the child with the diagnosis, so if your child is between the ages of seven and fifteen staff allows his or her sibling(s) to accompany him or her to camp as a sibling camper and join in the fun! Enrollment for summer 2011 is going on now! Click here to go to the camper application. http://campbarnabas.org/onlineregistration

I attended Camp Barnabas from 1997 until 2009 and it was the one thing I looked forward to all year long. While I was at camp, I felt free, like I could do anything and I never had to hide or be ashamed of anything because everyone else was going through the same things I was.

In all the time I spent at camp, I don't ever remember saying, "I'm bored" once. The campers are busy from the moment they wake up in the morning until the minute they go to sleep at night doing fun things like horseback riding, arts and crafts, swimming, drama, canoe rides, fishing, and so much more but they aren't by themselves! Camper counselor ratio at Barnabas is 1:1, so each camper gets their own brother or sister to hang out with for a week! Plus, every activity is adapted to suit each camper's individual needs and level of functioning so no one is left out. How cool is that?! To see what else Barnabas has to offer watch the video below.

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/naP_HF1r1E8?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/naP_HF1r1E8?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>