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Angela Wrigglesworth loves the accessible
tree house at Camp for All in Houston. |
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Up a Tree Texas Campers Love Their Accessible
New House
"I had one of those moments in life where you say to yourself,
Yes! This is it! This is what its all about!"
Angela Wrigglesworth gets giddy thinking about the first
time she watched a group of older MDA campers roll into the wheelchair-accessible
tree house at Camp for All, the home of MDAs Houston summer camp.
Wrigglesworth, 25, is a member of MDAs National Task Force on Public
Awareness and has spinal muscular atrophy. For her, the tree house
built in 2002 represents all the things people with disabilities arent
supposed to be able to do, but do anyway.
Located 25 feet off the ground in a beautiful oak tree, the uncovered
platform can hold 10 to 12 people in wheelchairs and their helpers.
Its reached by a 100-foot ramp that winds through the surrounding
trees.
Once in the tree house, its easy to imagine being a bird. Campers
can see the ground below through the slatted floor and parts of the
sky through the branches, while enjoying a cool breeze and the rustle
of leaves. Says Anne Swisher, MDA health care service coordinator
in Houston, "Its a wonderful feeling of freedom."
School and Camp Are the Same for Massachusetts
Senior
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| Jillian Bzdula enjoys swimming at the Massachusetts
Hospital School, where MDA holds its summer camp. |
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Not many kids think their school is so wonderful it should be in
a magazine. But that was Jillian Bzdulas thought when she wrote to
Quest about the Massachusetts Hospital School, a boarding school in
Canton for students with disabilities, many of whom have forms of
muscular dystrophy.
Jillian, 19, has spinal muscular atrophy and uses a wheelchair, as
do most of the other students at her school. She attends classes during
the week (shes a senior), then goes home to Taunton, Mass., on weekends.
"Its just like being at a regular school but everybody around
you has some sort of physical disability," she explains. In addition
to regular academics, the school offers a wide range of wheelchair-accessible
sports, including football, basketball, swimming and hockey.
The school is such a perfect spot for kids with disabilities that
MDA holds its summer camp, Camp Florian, there each year for kids
from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
"Its a beautiful place, on a lake, with a pontoon boat, an
indoor heated accessible pool, a bowling alley, radio station you
name it, theyve got it!" says Mary Leeman, MDAs area health
care service coordinator.
Snooze You Lose!
Dont Miss
Camp Sign-Up
Nows the time to sign up for MDA summer
camp. To register, contact your local MDA office and then
get ready to have a totally great time!
Check out the Summer Camp page on the
MDA Web site (www.mda.org/clinics/camp/)
for news and pictures from MDA camps all summer long. The site
has good information for your parents, too. |
Jillian notes that some MDA campers get jealous when they find out
she gets to stay at the camp location all year long. "Theyre
jealous that we get to play football," she says. Shes been attending
MDA camp for 12 years and the Massachusetts Hospital School for three.
"At first I was rebellious about the idea of going to the school
because I figured all the kids would be in wheelchairs and I wouldnt
feel comfortable," Jillian recalls. "But the older I got,
the weaker I got, and I realized that if I wanted to stay healthy
I needed physical and occupational therapy, and I finally decided
it was the best place to be."
Now does she wish she had made the decision to go
to the school sooner? "Oh yeah!" she declares.
