[Ohio-talk] Highbrook Lodge

[mzavoli at roadrunner.com]

HI Kelsey,

Having curtains on bathroom stalls is just a belief that people or the system expects you to by into.  Even the most challenging person, unless he or she has profound intellectual disabilities, can operate a bathroom stall door.  One way to resolve this curtain problem and eliminate locks is to put magnets on the doors, and they will stay closed themselves.  I can see a child having problems with the bathroom locks, but an adult, even one with decreased functionability, can operate a stall door.  Again, we see multiply-disabled campers grouped with persons who are just blind.  It doesn't work.  Persons with more than one disability have more needs and accommodations issues and the staff wants to lump everyone together, leaving the "vanilla blind" to engage in the same activities or face the same accommodations.  Yes, the multiply disabled need to have fun, too, and they need special care.  If a person is just blind, he or she should be given more leeway to face environments akin to daily living.

By the way, my sister went to Camp Wapanaki for at least eight years.  The first few years, she went as a camper and then in her teenage years, she went as a counselor.  She loved it!  She went overnight camping, hiking, swimming in the camp lake, boating, and even climbed the highest mountain in Vermont--Jay's Peak.  Throughout the year, she would keep in touch with all the friends from the camp.  Often, she would Braille or type her letters, depending on her friends' reading mode.  Still, at other times, she would exchange taped letters, interspersed with music and songs the campers sang together while there.  

In sum, my sister couldn't wait for summer to come and for camp to begin.  She would go for the whole duration.  She would have gone longer if possible, but the camp only lasted six weeks.

Milena Zavoli