Updated 06/27/2012 11:54 AM
Camp Abilities Provides Fun for Blind, Deaf, and Visually Impaired
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A speciality summer sports camp that focuses on fun activities for children who are blind, deaf, or visually impaired is underway at the College at Brockport.
This is the 17th year for Camp Abilities.
55 campers from all over the region participate in a variety of sports that use adaptive equipment to help them play. They use balls filled with bells, tandem bikes, and baseballs that beep.
The College at Brockport also installed a handicap accessible dock so the kids can canoe and kayak safely.
For many of the kids, it is their first time playing a team sport.
"The message is, you can do this. And so for a lot of kids they have not had the opportunity to even try any of these sports. And it's just kind of mind boggling that 10 or 11 year olds can come to this camp and they've never run. And it's not because they can't, it's because no one has ever expected that of them and no one's given them the opportunity," said Marla Runyan, legally blind Olympic athlete.
Brockport's Lauren Liberman founded the camp. It is now located in 16 cities across the world. Next year Camp Abilities will add Finland and Turkey.