6/13/01
Tropical Storm Allison Means an Extra Day of Camp in Houston
The devastating floods this month in Houston and Beaumont, Texas, meant an unexpected bonus for 168 kids at MDA's Camp Safari 2001: an extra day of camp.
Although Camp for All in Burton (about 90 miles from Houston) wasn't flooded, the truck and buses the campers needed to get home were trapped in flooded areas.
"I called the dispatcher and he just laughed and said the dispatch area was under water," says Anne Swisher, Houston MDA health care services coordinator.
MDA staffers were able to notify parents that the children wouldn't be coming home on June 9, as expected, then started a search for new buses to carry the kids out a day later, and a truck to transport wheelchairs and iron lungs.
Besides finding transportation and trying to maintain communications with Houston in the face of various phone outages, Swisher had an additional pressure: Another organization's camp for 170 children was due to start the next day at the facility. MDA campers were consolidated from 17 cabins to 11 to make room for arriving counselors for the new camp.
An appeal for a truck went out over MDA's Houston Telethon station, KPRC, and Blue Bell Creameries, a Brenham ice cream manufacturer, responded with a truck. Three bus drivers also were found who could get buses out of the flooded area. Three hours before the Epilepsy Foundation's Camp Spike 'n' Wave was due to start, MDA's Camp Safari finally took off.
"In a way, it was a lovely experience," says Swisher. "I always believe you see the best in people when you work in challenging situations. It was a lovely community effort. And all the kids were like, 'Yay! We get another day of camp!'
"We even changed the last line of our cheer. It goes, 'Where are we? CAMP SAFARI!,' but we changed it to, 'We're STILL at Camp Safari!'"
Read about MDA summer camps. |
