Operation Shine Camp helps kids, volunteers shine

The sun shined down brightly on dozens of young shining faces Friday afternoon June 9, as the first Operation Shine weekend camp of the season began at Covenant Cedars Bible Camp north of Hordville. As cars carrying the young campers rolled into the campground from all over the region at about 3 p.m., each camper was given a loud welcome greeting by groups of volunteers (referred to as “Big Campers”) who were cheering and waving signs personalized for just the Little Campers. 
One volunteer held up a poster board sign bearing the words “Welcome to camp!” while next to her was another Big Camper carry a sign with the name of camper Wyatt. It was decorated with flying birds, a boat and a stick figure fishing off a dock. 
“We’re super excited to be here,” exclaimed Wyatt’s mom as they posed for a picture with the Big Campers who had been part of the welcoming party. 
The special welcome was just the beginning of over 48 hours of special moments planned for special needs kids ages 7-12 who quite possibly have never spent a night away from their parents in their lives. The three-day, two-night camp is sponsored by Kids & Dreams Foundation of Kenesaw and the organization’s founder, Aaron Bly says most of the campers are on the autism spectrum. 
“So we have some kids with Down syndrome and some other conditions but mainly autism and Down syndrome are the ones that come,” said Bly as he was overseeing the opening of the camp on Friday. 
According to the organization’s website, activities at the camp include: arts/crafts, swimming, fishing, archery, crate stacking, sensory activities, and more.
With temperatures soaring into the 80s on Friday afternoon, swimming was an extremely popular activity and just as soon as they had packed away their belongings in their cabins, many campers and volunteers were splashing in the pool and the nearby lake. 
Bly said at this weekend camp there were approximately 50 campers and between 160 and 170 volunteers ranging from high school and college students to adults, a number of whom are professionals in fields like special education and occupational therapy. 
“We’ve found over the years that we like to have about a three to one ratio, volunteer to camper,” said Bly. “Each Little Camper has a least two volunteers with them. And then we also have Activities Team, C&R -- which is like a kind of a Coaching and Respite team if there’s meltdowns – Photo Team and Hospitality, so a variety of different areas people can help. But we’ve found that a three to one ratio works really well for what we’re trying to do.”
Bly said the C&R Team is there to help out if campers experience meltdowns, which can be common in children with autism. But Bly said they also serve as mentors for the volunteers, helping them learn how to handle meltdowns. He said an interesting development has been that the experience has caused several of the younger volunteers to consider careers in child development and other disciplines. 
“We had one volunteer last year who was still in high school,” said Bly. “She came to camp for the very first time and decided to go into music therapy and now she’s going to the University of Kansas for music therapy and it’s all because she came to camp here.”
“It’s a great networking opportunity for the volunteers,” said Bly. “Because we have high school, college students and then adults and professionals such as occupational therapists.”
He said for some volunteers the camp even acts as field work where they are graded for their work.    
“And it helps us because we need volunteers, so its a win-win,” said Bly.
The Kids & Dreams Foundation will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its founding this fall, which Bly said is hard to believe. 
“It’s gone by fast,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like it should be that long ago.”
Bly said he was inspired to start the organization by his son Trae, who graduated from high school this spring. Trae is autistic and Bly says he learned many things about the disorder on his journey with his son that could only be learned by experience. For instance, he said while his son craved dairy products, his body couldn’t properly process them which caused problems. When the parents took dairy out of his diet the meltdowns stopped. Bly said he doesn’t understand why more parents of kids with autism aren’t told about this. 
“We just wanted to help other families because they just feel isolated out there,” said Bly, who noted that part of the reason for the camps is to give parents some respite time away from their children. 
This was actually the second camp of the season for Operation Shine. A day camp was held the previous weekend, which is an opportunity for first timers to try it out before committing to a full weekend including two nights away from home. He said many of those who attend the day camp will come back for the longer experience. A second weekend camp is scheduled for the weekend of June 30-July 2 also at Covenant Cedars. Parent interested in learning more information about that camp can visit the organization’s website, kidsanddreams.org. 
As the time approached 5 o’clock, the campers and volunteers were still happily playing in the pool and lake, but thunder could be heard coming from an approaching rain cloud and Bly was advised by Covenant Cedars staff that campers would need to get out of the water soon. Bly asked that the whistle not be blown until he had a chance to call in the C&R team in case of negative reactions from any of the Little Campers. 
Another teaching/learning opportunity – the first of many that weekend – was about to begin.