Smith brings dream to life with Camp Acacia
When a college-going Rachel Smith went looking for a resource room to study for her statistics test but found a volunteer organization meeting about a camp for children with disabilities, she stayed out of embarrassment. By the end of the meeting, she signed up to volunteer out of guilty obligation.
“I had never worked with someone with a disability in my whole life,” Smith said. “I ended up going to the weekend camp and it was the best weekend of my life.”
As Smith leads a tour through the now-open Camp Acacia, a summer camp that sprawls 22 acres and facilitates everything from biking to kayaking for children and adults with mental, physical and social disabilities, she says getting to build and run her own facility is “surreal.”
“I’m so excited,” Smith said. “I’m dripping with privilege and I know it — nobody gets this. So mostly I just feel honored and privileged that I get to do this for these families. So often kids with diverse abilities end up with the least best version of stuff. They’re going to find a place they get the best stuff and this is that place.”
Camp Acacia is located at 9345 WPA Road in Gentry at what was formerly Camp Joshua. Smith purchased the land and began renovations last year.
The daughter of former Tyson CEO Donnie Smith, Rachel Smith is no stranger to responsibility, leadership and management. Prior to pursuing Camp Acacia, she was able to refine those skills during employment with both Tyson and Walmart. However, her family does one thing together that she’s taken to heart — serve others. Because of her father’s work in Africa, work Rachel herself has had a hand in, Rachel went so far as to name her facility after deeply-rooted African traditions that mean a pledge is a pledge, and she’s going to see hers through.
“We’ve made this promise to Northwest Arkansas that we’re going to create a place that you can better engage through recreation with your family,” Smith said. “Every choice I make, I ask myself — is this helping us reach our goal? If it’s not, why am I making this choice?”
Camp Acacia serves children and adults, ages 6 to 22, with diverse abilities, a definition developed by Smith to take attention away from one’s disabilities and redirect it to the foundational principles that she says just need to be taught. Smith has chosen to do that through recreational therapy.
“I’m 33. If I took a physical right now, I’d get pretty average results for a 33-year-old woman. If a 33-year-old person with autism took that exact same physical, on average they’re going to come out to say a 53-year-old woman. It’s all lifestyle factors — it has nothing to do with their diagnosis.”
A potentially sedentary lifestyle is compounded by a family’s financial status and the cost of adaptive equipment, Smith said.
For example, a boy’s, Trek brand mountain bike being used at Camp Acacia this summer could retail for $489.99 to $519.99 via trekbikes.com. For someone with diverse abilities, the same bike can be purchased but may need to be outfitted with something like FatWheels, a stabilizing set of wheels for someone with balance or sensory issues. A set of FatWheels for a 24- to 29inch bike is $199.95 prior to taxes and shipping.
Smith says the conflict is so widespread she’s working on partnering with organizations like FatWheels to provide discounted, adaptive equipment so families are able to take advantage of recreational activities like biking without worrying about potential financial barriers.
She’s applied the same principle to the funding model in place for children and families who attend Camp Acacia. Pricing is based on a family’s income and merges with a scholarship system to determine cost of attending camp.
Much of the equipment currently at Camp Acacia was purchased, and some even installed, by Rachel Smith’s father, Donnie, along with purchases
from Rachel Smith and discounts from other organizations. Camp Acacia is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that accepts donations.
While Camp Acacia looks like your average summer camp; children are walking away with a holistic understanding of how to perform the activities they partake in. For example, when campers go swimming, they learn what’s appropriate to do and say in a dressing room, what pool safety is and how to swim.
Smith said she hopes if a camper comes their first year, their second year they will be building on the principles they learned the previous summer and “get better and better every year.”
The weekly camps are broken down by age and functioning level, Smith said. Each week is named after Smith’s African inspiration from her family’s work in the country.
Each camp also has a its own camper-to-counselor ratio, influenced by functioning level. One week may have three campers to one counselor, where another week may have one camper to one counselor to facilitate whatever needs they may have. That’s not including the overall structure of the counseling tiers, which also include 10 activity counselors and a head counselor.
Even though the camp is in its first operating year, Smith has high hopes for where it could go.
“I want to be the best in the country at doing this thing we’re doing,” she said. “What matters to me the most at the end of the day is that the kids that we serve end up being able to engage their communities through recreation. That they end up being able to live big, full, amazing lives that aren’t just work and home.”
Camp Acacia will be serving campers through July 26 and will open for its 2020 season next June. Throughout the year the camp will also host Camp Acacia Explorer, a program geared toward hosting events in different communities across Northwest Arkansas that will help campers apply what they learned at camp in the real world. Smith also intends on hosting parties around Halloween and Christmas that will bring local campers back together and continue to apply what they’ve learned.
More information can be found at campacacia.org.