New Year:
Following the success of my first year in running the cheer camp for both kids with and without Down syndrome, I was excited to develop the camp into something even more ambitious. The major change, of course, would be shifting the focus of the camp to exclusively Ds children. In addition to this, however, I also expanded the length of the camp to run multiple sessions.
This year flyers around my neighborhood and online were not going to reach the specific community I was focusing the camp around. A very proactive mother of a former camper was generous in helping me broaden my reach and get in contact with other parents of kids with Down syndrome. She set me up with eight other parents to start two separate weeks, one with five students and one with four. This mom believed in me and encouraged me to believe in myself as well. Throughout my work with her, I was always surprised at how much she thanked me, given she was the one helping me. Her gratitude made me feel as though the work I was doing was important.
Camp Experience:
As the first week was kicking off, I came across both struggles and successes. For the latter, one of the campers had a tendency for wandering. This camper ended up in the bathroom with the door locked for about thirty minutes. While this situation was unlike any I’d encountered before, I used my skills of persuasion to gently talk her out. Ultimately, this particular struggle led to a success: the ability to communicate effectively with my campers. I was able to use what I learned to help the campers stay focused and engaged throughout the camp. While stressful at the time, I am grateful for the opportunity to learn.
For the second week, I tried a new time window in the afternoon. Previously, camp had always been in the morning. Now that camp was in the afternoon, in the middle of the summer, I had some heat issues. All of the campers for the second week were having difficulty with the high temperatures within the first ten minutes of camp. This led to crankiness each day which made it almost impossible to get any work done. To troubleshoot this issue, the camp moved to a more shaded area. This area was more constricted and was far from ideal for camp. The camp activities strayed away from cheerleading, and more to coloring and talking. In addition, some campers and their parents decided to not continue the camp for the rest of the week, which left me with one camper on the last day. Although this was disappointing, I learned new activities to add to the camp in future years like coloring and question games which interested the campers equally as much as cheerleading.
My Ending Recap:
Although the second week of camp was not as successful as I’d hoped it would be, I still gained valuable lessons from it as I did in week one. It taught me to consider the unique needs of the campers and take into consideration their comfort and abilities. Leaving year two I accomplished two weeks of teaching kids with Down syndrome and I also learned three new lessons to carry on into the next year with. These included the power of persuasion and communication, the importance of morning sessions, and staying true to the founding principles of the camp in ensuring everyone felt loved and included.
