Families feeling effects of Camp CaPella closure Children with disabilities miss its easy camaraderie

loading...

The past few months have been tough for Maryjo Tardif, but they’ve been even harder on her 13-year-old son, Corey.

“It’s been the summer of hell for him,” the Brewer resident said recently. “All he wanted was to be with his peers. He didn’t want to have to be with Mom all day.”

Peers sometimes have been hard to find for Corey, who was born with Asperger syndrome, a form of autism that limits his social capacity and impairs his thoughts and actions.

For the past five summers before this one, though, finding peers for Corey wasn’t a problem. Neither was staying home with Mom.

As it was for many others, Camp CaPella in Dedham was his home, at least during the days.

There, on the shore of Phillips Lake, Corey learned to swim, kayak, even tie his shoes. More important, it was a place for him to interact with other children, many of whom were going through the same struggles he was.

But this summer, Corey couldn’t go to Camp CaPella. No one could.

The camp, run for more than 40 years by United Cerebral Palsy of Northeast Maine as a place for children with all sorts of disabilities, was forced to close its doors because of lack of funding.

When Maryjo Tardif learned she couldn’t send her son to camp this year – the only place he has felt comfortable among children his age – Corey was devastated.

“When I had to tell him, it broke my heart,” she said. “When he was there, he didn’t have to worry that so-and-so was making fun of him behind his back.

“It was just a safe place to be himself.”

The closure of Camp CaPella has affected many children in Greater Bangor just like Corey Tardif.

“This was the only place around for children with severe disabilities to go,” said Bobbi-Jo Yaeger, UCP executive director. “There has been a huge sense of loss this year. The families feel it, and we certainly feel it.”

Yaeger has spent 12 years helping to coordinate Camp CaPella, which was host to an average of 80 children age 5 and up for eight weeks every summer.

When the financial well ran dry and UCP no longer could afford to keep the camp open, the news hit hard, even for families that hadn’t yet taken advantage of its benefits.

“I went to camp when I was a kid, and I want my daughter to have the same experience I did,” said Kim Leonard of Winterport, whose 3-year-old daughter, Megan, has been receiving services at UCP for about a year. She’s not yet old enough to attend Camp CaPella, but her mom hoped she would get the option.

“The facility is there, it’s built for this,” Leonard said. “It’s heart-wrenching to know that it’s there, but we can’t use it.”

Still, the camp’s closure hasn’t dampened spirits. On the contrary, it has elicited an outpouring of support from the community.

Leonard and Katie Guernsey of Bangor, who also has a 3-year-old daughter, Abby, have spearheaded an aggressive campaign to raise $150,000 to reopen the camp next summer.

Like Leonard, Guernsey wants her daughter, who suffers from a neurodevelopmental disorder called Rett syndrome, to have the camp experience when she’s old enough.

“Every child deserves that, not just mine,” Guernsey said. “There are so many things you do at summer camp for the first time.”

The fundraising efforts have been difficult so far, with only about one-third of the goal in hand.

“We’ve been contacting businesses, and a lot of places haven’t been able to donate,” Leonard said. “They want to, but everybody is strapped right now.”

Yaeger applauded the efforts of Leonard, Guernsey and so many others, but worried that the mountain is a big one to climb.

“We’ve been fundraising really hard, and we’ve heard that there is all this support, but the dollars aren’t following,” she said. “We’re at a point where we say, ‘We realize there is a need for this, but what can the community afford?'”

Guernsey, for one, wants to find out, for her daughter’s sake if nothing else.

“I really decided that this is something worth fighting for,” she said. “There is no reason that we can’t get this place open. I’m hoping by the time she is 5, we’ll be able to pull this off.”

Whether Camp CaPella will be around next year for her son or not, Tardif agreed that giving up on it would be simply wrong.

“For everyone else and for their kids, I wish people could understand that everyone needs their little niche or safe haven,” she said. “That’s what Camp CaPella is.”

For more information about Camp CaPella or about fundraising efforts, contact United Cerebral Palsy of Northeast Maine at 941-2952 or visit the Web site at http://ucpofmaine.org.