The Daniels Fund awarded a $15,000 grant this month to support a summer camp for children with autism in New Mexico.
UNM’s Center for Development and Disability organizes Camp Rising Sun, which serves more than 80 children ages 8 to 13 in two summer sessions.
With the $15,000 grant, CRS can hold three camps of the same length in 2010. One session will be specifically for adolescents, said Sharon Cruse, assistant director of the camp.
“With the addition of the adolescent camp, we are going to serve more kids of a different nature next summer,” she said. “We want to serve as many people with autism as possible.”
At the camp, children with developmental disabilities learn social and behavioral skills, Cruse said.
“It’s the basic summer camp experience, but what we are finding is that these kids take the independence and the social skills they have learned back to their everyday life in school and try new things,” she said. “They are not good with their communication skills and their social skills, those are deficits they have, and the camp gives them an opportunity to develop those skills.”
Camp founder and director Laura White said the camp gives children with autism an opportunity to have a summer camp experience that they otherwise wouldn’t get.
“The camp allows these kids to do all the things that you would do at a regular camp because we have specially trained counselors to deal with the challenges that children with autism face,” she said. “We can support the campers so they succeed at these activities and succeed in interacting with other children.”
The Bill Daniels fund was established in 1997, and Daniels had a sister who was developmentally disabled, said Peter Droege, Daniels Fund spokesman.
“Bill Daniels wanted to provide grants in the areas of disabilities, either developmental or physical,” he said. “Autism programs are a great fit for our disabilities funding programs. There are so many kids that struggle with autism and so much can be done to help them understand and overcome their obstacles to whatever degree possible.”
White said getting this grant shows that the CRS program has moved in the right direction since it was founded in 2006.
“The Daniels Fund support is paramount to what we do,” she said. “The fact that they deemed our program worthy of their funding and their belief in our program is huge to us.”
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White said Camp Rising Sun has more plans for expansion, such as a pre-school camp and family retreats.
“We would really like this to be a camp that serves individuals with autism throughout their lifespan,” she said. “People should know that individuals with autism have many challenges and want to be a contributing member to society just like anybody else.”
