Autism Ontario camp focuses on fun
Program also helps campers overcome their challenges and celebrates their success
“I want to go to camp, please.”
Those seven words don’t come easily to Thomas Smith, even though he says them several times a day, every day, over the entire summer.
The 15-year-old has autism and much of his communication is nonverbal. He points at pictures or in a direction he wishes to go. Sometimes he will put his bathing suit in his backpack, a clear signal he is ready to get out the door and hopefully head to a local water park on a field trip, thanks to his beloved summer camp.
“Speaking for him is incredibly hard,” his mother Georgia Smith says during an afternoon phone interview with the Star. “We never thought we could get to the place where our child wouldn’t just go to camp, but could ask to go to camp.”
This summer Thomas will spend seven weeks at AOK Camp & AOA Summer Program, run by the York Region chapter of Autism Ontario. His experience, like those of all the campers, is supported in part through donations made to the Star’s Fresh Air Fund.
It is his fourth summer at the day camp and Thomas is, to put it mildly, pleasantly obsessed.
“The second he is home Friday, all he wants to do is go back again,” his mother says.
Founded in 1987, the camp is attended by about 48 people a week or 120 in total over the summer. Each camper is paired up with a counsellor.
There is no age limit, with campers ranging in age from 4 to 45. Once you are a camper, you are one for life.
Sarah Shaw, manager for the York Region chapter of Autism Ontario, says the camp focuses first on fun and also celebrating individual successes.
Most of their campers spend the rest of their year in speech and physical therapy, education programs, visiting doctors or working with teachers and caregivers.
“They don’t get a chance to just kick back and have a great time,” Shaw says. “They get to come to camp and have fun.”
Fresh Air Fund contributions mean parents pay just $475 a week for about $1,500 worth of programming and supports. That includes trips to places such as the Toronto Zoo and water parks, Thomas’s favourite.
Shaw says an emphasis is put on being out in the community and helping campers overcome individual challenges, which with autism might include intense sensitivity to touch or loud noises.
“Their parents may shy away from taking them anywhere loud, but we might take them to the Blue Jays game and have their headset on and make sure there is somewhere quiet we can take them.”
Smith says having a regular camp experience is an opportunity her son would only get through Autism Ontario, because of the incredible level of care and understanding of her son’s needs.
“We are so lucky that a place like this exists. He has so much in his life that is hard,” his mother says. “He is healthy and happy and loves summer time and not at home in front of a computer with me, which is not what a 15-year-old should do ever.”
The campers and parents are also part of a community and parents volunteer and fundraise throughout the year, she says. For the Smith family that meant helping out at bingo nights and during a holiday drive where campers and family members took photos with Santa.
They live in Markham and every day during the summer they make the drive to Richmond Hill to drop Thomas off at 9 a.m.
“He grabs his backpack and hightails it,” his mother says. “Before I can sign him in, he says ‘bye’ or ‘kiss’ so that I leave. It is very clear, once I drop him off. Bye is my cue to leave.”
On top of field trips, her son has also been on three overnight trips at the Kinark Outdoor Centre in Minden, Ont.
“It is only one day, but again it is something we never thought he would be able to do. It is one day, but it is bigger than just one day,” she says.
Before the call wraps up, Smith pauses and asks her son what he wants.
He responds immediately. The words are slow, steady and clear. “I want to go to camp, please.”
“Did you hear that?” she asks, laughing.
“We’ve only been home for half an hour. Camp is not till tomorrow.”