From the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In the picture, Shannon Grace (background), 24, of St. Louis helps camper Emma Burch (foreground), 12, of O'Fallon, IIl., paint camp shirts with her wheelchair at Camp Independence.
At one summer camp on Friday afternoon, power wheelchairs were the art tools instead of paintbrushes.
Young people with cerebral palsy attend Camp Independence at the Webster Groves Recreation Center for the sports they don't normally get to play. However, during this art activity, the wheels that keep them from making the school basketball team let them express their creativity on T-shirts and canvas bags.
"Wheel art counteracts the feelings and messages of inability," said Julie Gant, the art therapist at St. Louis Children's Hospital, which hosts the camp. "They tap into their creativity and get to make their mark."
Before 12-year-old K.J. Brookins wheeled over to the paint, volunteer Kari Teweles told him, "Make sure you don't go full-speed."
Wheel art is fun, K.J. said, but his favorite activities at camp are baseball, tennis and dunking people in the swimming pool.
One of the only sports camps for children with cerebral palsy, Camp Independence's theme is "We all can play."
Campers rotate through martial arts, basketball, dance, soccer and other activities so they can feel like other kids, said Jennifer Miros, manager of the Cerebral Palsy Sports and Rehabilitation Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Miros adapts the sports for campers by slowing the pace but challenges the kids to increase their strength and activity levels.
Brenda Stenglein brought her son Sean from Ashford, Conn., because he doesn't have the opportunity to be as active back home even though he loves watching and playing sports.
"He needs to be moving," she said. "There's no other program like this."
She watched as her daughter and another volunteer held Sean up as he walked from the red paint to the blue. Stenglein asked the girls to let Sean, who communicates using a computer, sit in the paint and get his hands messy. The girls then smeared red paint under his eyes, yelling, "War paint!"
"The more he's treated like a typical 12-year-old, the better," Stenglein said.
This is Sean's first year — though Stenglein plans to bring him back next summer. But camper April Lohrmann, 18, has been attending camp for six years.
Physical therapist Sarah Hickey said April is the most physically active camper, despite her cane and leg braces.
April's swimming record is 90 laps, all in one session. She goes to the YMCA for cardio and strength training workouts. In the mornings when campers play tennis, she usually wins.
"I'm a pro at tennis," she said.
The camp, which runs Monday to Friday through the end of July, isn't accepting any more campers, but it still needs volunteers.
Volunteer Brent Doering, 16, said camp has changed his life. He now wants to be an occupational and physical therapist because of how happy being active makes the campers.
Hickey said camp fulfills the physical, creative and social needs of these campers with cerebral palsy.
"They get more out of camp," she said, "than anywhere else."
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In the picture, Shannon Grace (background), 24, of St. Louis helps camper Emma Burch (foreground), 12, of O'Fallon, IIl., paint camp shirts with her wheelchair at Camp Independence.