Did you know that Brockport is the home to Camp Abilities, a week-long educational sports camp for visually impaired children? This unique camp takes place annually at the SUNY Brockport campus. It draws children ages nine to 19 from all over the state who are visually impaired, blind, or deaf-blind, as well as coaches and volunteers from all over the world. Participants reside at the campus dorms and spend the week learning new sports and engaging in fun and enriching camp activities with one-on-one coaching.
Camp Abilities aims to help students feel more confident by learning and engaging in various sports and activities. It was founded at SUNY Brockport in 1996 and has grown to empower tens of thousands of visually impaired children in the U.S. and abroad. Camp Abilities is offered in more than six locations in NYS and 30 locations worldwide.
Dr. Lauren Lieberman is the founder and director of Camp Abilities. She grew up with siblings who dealt with hearing loss and dyslexia, and she had challenges related to attention deficit disorder. Attending summer camp enriched Lauren’s childhood with positive experiences. Her mom volunteered at a summer camp that Lauren and her siblings attended. She has cherished memories of making new friends, exposure to new activities, and sports accomplishments. These opportunities fueled her passion to help as a volunteer at camps while attending college at West Chester University for Physical Education.
In her first year there, she developed a pivotal connection with Monica Lepore, a professor who taught Adapted Physical Education at West Chester. Adapted physical education is the art and science of developing, implementing, and monitoring a carefully designed physical education program for those with disabilities. This relationship between Lauren and Professor Lepore influenced Lauren’s career trajectory. It turned into a lifelong mentorship and friendship, leading to the creation of Camp Abilities.
Lauren pursued an adapted P.E. concentration in her undergraduate program and then went on to her master’s at the University of Wisconsin, leading to her Doctorate at Oregon University. Throughout her academic career, she also continued with her volunteerism in this specialized field of adapted physical education. Before beginning her doctorate program, she taught at the Perkins School of the Blind, the country’s first school for blind students, founded in 1829, and attended by Helen Keller. As Dr Lieberman’s experiences in this field continued expanding, so did her passion for adapted physical education for the sensory-impaired population.
Upon completion of her doctorate, she accepted a position at SUNY Brockport in 1995 to teach adapted P.E. That is where her experiences, education, and passion came together to begin the foundation of Camp Abilities.
Dr. Lieberman recognized that the college did not have a program specifically designed for students with visual impairments. With Dr. Monica Lepore’s help, she created Camp Abilities. Endless hours of grant writing, fundraising, educational planning, working with the NYS Commission for the Blind and the college, as well as recruiting student teachers and volunteers, laid the infrastructure for the program.
Camp Abilities of Brockport was the first camp in the region to serve children with visual impairments. What began initially at SUNY Brockport as a camp for the visually impaired has evolved into camps throughout the state, the country, and internationally, with 30 locations for Camp Abilities worldwide.
On average, Brockport Camp Abilities is residence to 50 students each year who participate in a wide variety of sports, such as track, goal ball, swimming, beep basketball, blind soccer, tandem biking, kayaking, paddle boarding, and sailing. This year, they added blind tennis. Dr. Lieberman continues to lead the camp, which is staffed by many coaches, counselors, future teachers, and countless volunteers.
Despite the college’s generosity, Brockport Camp Abilities costs $140,000 annually. The meals are donated and served by the Lions Club, Brockport Police Department, Cooper Vision, and SUNY Brockport University Police. Donations from businesses, the community, grants and a $1,000 per student donation from the NYS Commission for the Blind help to offset the expense to the students’ families opening the opportunity to more students.
Tori, a volunteer from Syracuse, helped as a coach this year at Brockport Camp Abilities. She is visually impaired and first came to Brockport in 2015 to participate in Camp Abilities as a high school junior. Tori hoped it would be fun, but the experience far exceeded her expectations. “At first, I really wasn’t sure if I would get a lot out of it,” she said. “But this experience ended up being life-changing for me.” A few years after attending Camp Abilities, she began volunteering at the Saratoga Camp Abilities and went to college for social work. She has since graduated and is pursuing her master’s in expressive art therapy to help bridge the social emotion learning for those with disabilities. “I hope to someday create a camp like Camp Abilities, but using art therapy,” Tori said.
Sailing is one of the many sports that the campers at Camp Abilities can experience. The Brockport Yacht Club generously provides sailboats and volunteers to help with this part of the camp.
Jim Balmer, a member of the Brockport Yacht Club, has been helping with the sailing program at Camp Abilities for ten years. “Today, we had a 12-year-old girl who sailed for her first time. She started out fearful and did not want to try steering. In no time, with the help of the coaches, she overcame her fear and steered the sailboat. It was rewarding to see her confidence grow right before my eyes. It feels so good to give and help,” he said.
Kris Scheppe, from Naples, Florida, also helps teach sailing at Camp Abilities. He is a visually impaired U.S. World Champion sailor who loves teaching blind people to sail. Lauren’s father and her brother, Marc, also come in from out of state to help with Camp Abilities, especially with sailing. Kaisu Hynninen is a visually impaired future coach who traveled from Iceland to Brockport to learn more about Camp Abilities with the intention of bringing the program to her country.
This year’s 29th annual Brockport Camp Abilities ran from June 30 through July 6. “The community provides us overwhelming support,” said Dr. Lieberman. “The mayor, the local businesses, Lions Club, and police see the value of this program and help support us to empower children with sensory impairments.”
Dr. Lieberman added, “More than 63,000 children in the U.S. have visual disabilities, and camps like Camp Abilities help them become physically active and productive members of their schools and society.”
Dr. Lieberman continues teaching at SUNY Brockport as a Distinguished Service Professor for undergraduate and graduate-level classes, helping others learn to teach sports and recreational activities to people with sensory impairments. She has co-authored 24 books on adapted physical education and was awarded a Global Fulbright Scholarship for the Camp Abilities she began in Ghana, Brazil, and Ireland.
To learn more about Camp Abilities, volunteer with the program, or donate, visit https://www.campabilities.org/.
(Left to right) Kris Scheppe, Lauren Lieberman, Jim Balmer, Marc Lieberman and John Gardner.
Photo by Karen Fien.
