[blindkid] Blind Camps

Sat Jun 5 17:15:15 UTC 2010

Sorry, but I feared that without giving spacifics that it would just sound 
like generalized discontent or wining.  I hate it when people, in person or 
on lists complane about a product, service, situation, etc without giving 
spacific examples or reasons.  If someone tells me not to buy such and such 
brand of organic sheets, because they were of low quality, I am not likely 
to listen to them, but if they tell me that the colour bled and faded within 
two washings, that the elastic in the fitted sheet gave out and that the 
company did not stand behind their product I would take heed.  If someone 
complanes about a professor, just saying, they are unfair, or they suck, I 
am going to wonder if the professor is really that bad, or if the individual 
was lazy in their school work or disruptive in class.  If they can say, "the 
professor would count being even one minute late as an absence, locking the 
door at the start of class, not giving tardies, just absences, would not 
accept an assignment I gave them because it was not stapled, and refused to 
excuse an absence when I was in the hospital after being involved in a ten 
car pile up." then I know why they are saying what they did.  I wish this 
was like a Live Journal community, where you can make a cut, where you might 
say "Such and such was amazing, I loved it."  or "I hated such and such, it 
was terrible." with a link to "If you want more details." or "For my full 
review of this product or service."  click here.  Hmmm, I wonder if it would 
be helpful to you all if I wrote up detailed descriptions of or explanations 
of things in my LJ, and then just wrote short emails, with links to my posts 
elsewhere, so that those who want to can go and read on, and those who don't 
want to, or don't have the time can just get my most basic opinion and then 
move on?  Would that be helpful?  Just a thought.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dr. S. Merchant" <smerchant at vetmed.lsu.edu>
To: "'NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)'" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 05, 2010 11:22 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Blind Camps


> Heather,
>
> I am very grateful for the many wonderful emails that you send to the 
> list,
> for obviously "having been there and done that" gives us a wealth of
> information.  However, many of your emails are so negative, I can hardly 
> get
> through them and often do not try any more. Please try to inform and
> enlighten without all the incredible negative details.
>
> Sandy Merchant Taboada
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Heather
> Sent: Friday, June 04, 2010 9:04 PM
> To: NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] Blind Camps
>
> Well, the second sounds nice, but the first you mentioned is one of the
> horrific ones I went to, and many of my peers suffered through.  I got 
> into
> a screaming match with a counsilor once because I wasn't particularly good
> at the long jump, and on my first try I jumped and landed in a heap and
> started lauging.  I said "Ok, that sucked, let's try that again, shall 
> we?"
> in a good humor.  She instantly jumped on me saying "That was fine." 
> "Erm,
> no it wasn't, but I'll try it again."  "No, you have to stop having such a
> negative attitude."  "Lady, it sucked, it's no big deal, I'm not upset 
> about
>
> it, but it really and truly sucked.  I didn't go hardly anywhere and I
> landed on my butt, so what can I do to make it better?"  "If you don't 
> think
>
> that you can do it then you will never be able to."  "Uh, I do think I can
> do it, eventually, but I need some pointers, what should I do 
> differently?"
> "Well, if you are just going to insist on putting yourself down then maybe
> you should give the next girl a chance."  Another counsilor got angry with
> me because they were having kids throw plates, glass plates, from the 
> dining
>
> hall on the grass, because starting right off with a diskus is sort of 
> heavy
>
> for small hands.  I expressed my concern that I would throw it too far and
> break it on the parking lot, and the man assured me that I wouldn't, that 
> if
>
> I did it wouldn't be a problem, and then advised me to give it a light 
> toss.
>
> I did, it overshot the other campers, the grass and smashed to pieces on 
> the
>
> parkinglot.  He yelled at me telling me that "You did that on purpose. 
> You
> can see can't you?  You are just acting like you can't see all that much.
> You think you're funny don't you?"  When this man should have known full
> well, that I was a medium high partial, and that I had tried to warn him
> that I was afraid it might hit the pavement and not the grass.  My first
> year when I was seven, a deaf blind girl who was pretty low functioning,
> either because of mental retardation, or improper management by the
> counsilors or improper socialization and education by the parents, came up
> to me where I was sitting in the dining hall, grabbed my bowl of very hot
> soup and dumped it into my lap after grabbing various things off of the
> table and throwing them, including my silverware, my brandnew diskman and 
> my
>
> plate.  It hurt like hell and my diskman shattered.  I was seven for 
> crying
> out loud, so I did what a lot of normal seven year olds would have done. 
> I
> grabbed her and started yelling at her and shuvved her.  She didn't bleed,
> no bones were broken, she didn't hear the mean things I said, no clothing
> was ripped or property of hers damaged.  All that she got was me grabbing
> her and pushing her down onto her but on the floor, and I was half her 
> size.
>
> They were going to kick me out for that.  My stomach and legs didn't get
> seen for the nasty blistering oozing burns for at least a half an hour of
> them lecturing me while I kept insisting that "It hurt" and "she burned 
> me"
> and "I need a bandaid or something.  Finally, a girl who was diabetic and
> had special concintrated sugar disks that were for if her blood sugar
> dropped was being hastled by a counsilor, who was not aware of her
> condition, for "not sharing her candy" when one of the low functioning
> camperrs heard her grab the bag out of her drawr and take one because she
> had tested low and was feeling faint.  Here she was, about ready to pass
> out, trying to politely and calmly explain to the counsilor that they were
> medically neccessary and not candy.  I was trying to tell the counsilor 
> that
>
> the candies were not ordinary candies, but she was starting to give one to
> her camper, the MR one.  I grabbed the bag out of her hand, made sure that
> the older girl had taken one, then went into the hall to find her 
> counsilor
> who knew of her condition, and only then did the first counsilor stop
> insinuating that my friend was selfish and childish, but neither of us 
> ever
> got an apology.  It's not the indiviedual events, it's the attitude that I
> had a problem with.  I will look up the second camp you mentiooned, since 
> it
>
> was more of a normal summer camp experience.  Thanks.  Wasn't planning on
> pointing individual fingers at camps, but since it came up, I thought I 
> sort
>
> of had to say something.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jessica" <jess28 at samobile.net>
> To: <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, June 04, 2010 4:55 PM
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] Blind Camps
>
>
>> SUNY Brockport I believe runs Camp Abilities. They run the camp to give
>> students in their Adaptive Physical Education Program experience working
>> with students with Visual Impairments and prehaps other physical
>> disabilities.  When I was between the ages of about 6-12 or 13 I attended
>> Easter Seals camp called Camp Hemlock in Connecticut I don't exactly
>> remember where in Connecticut the camp is located. It was just at normal
>> overnight summer camp.
>> Jessica
>>
>> -- 
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