Camp Abilities Pivots Again to Bring Sports to Children With Visual Impairments
Camp Abilities is an educational sports camp for children with visual impairments. This year Camp Abilities held their second virtual camp in their 26 years.
Camp Abilities has planned our 25th anniversary now twice. Due to COVID-19, our Camp pivoted to a virtual platform. Last year we had 26 athletes participate virtually and 32 athletes with visual impairments participated this year.
Our graduate and undergraduate students have been working hard all year long to bring sports to these youth who have been marginalized more than most of their peers at this hard time. Our opening ceremonies provided role models such as President Macpherson, Jason Romero (an athlete with a visual impairment who is an ultra runner and the first person with a VI to run across the country), and Lindsay Ball (a Paralympic skier and a marathon runner who is blind). Ball is also a 2X Brockport who is entering a doctoral program at Old Dominion in the Fall. We also had Martha Ruether a former camper turned Paralympian in 2016 in Rio.
Ruether is also a Brockport graduate and just made the US Paralympic swim team for the Tokyo games! We are in for a wonderful week of sports, socialization, and growth. Thank you to everyone on campus who has helped us get to this point. We appreciate everyone!