Camp Riley serves as a safe haven for kids

Camp Riley, an outreach program of Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis, holds five one-to-two week long sessions serving children ages 8 to 18 with physical disabilities.

Some common diagnoses seen at the camp include muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy, spina bifida and cerebral palsy.

“There’s Christmas, and then there’s Camp Riley, many of them tell us that it’s the place,” Shay Dawson, Director of Bradford Woods said.

Dawson said Camp Riley is like any other camp.

“Our campers go swimming, do archery, high ropes course, arts and crafts, etc., except everything is adapted. We use adaptive bows and arrows for archery instead of real bows and arrows and water ski with sit skis.”

The campers appreciated the camp because it allows them to set aside their disabilities.

“My favorite thing about camp is horseback riding because I feel like I am in a different world sometimes,” camper Veronika “Anika” Lunde said.

12 year-old Lunde lives with T7 T8 paralysis, which means she’s paralyzed from about the waist down.

“I love seeing the joy on her face before she leaves and when she comes home,” Dawna Lunde, Anika’s mother, said. “I love that they work on individual goals with the kids.”

Additionally, the camp offers three specialty sessions specifically for children with blood disorders, Down’s syndrome and crainial-facial differences.

Riley campers also experience Challenge Day, in which they do something they have never done before or that might prove difficult for them, like swimming across the lake or climbing to the top of Cardiac Hill, a very steep hill.

“I love Camp Riley because it gives me a break from being a full-time caregiver,” Cheryl Adams  said. Her daughter, Julia, is a camper at Camp Riley.

“I know that where she’s going they are going to have all the training they need to take care of a child with special needs,” Adams said.

Parents have found the camp to be helpful with building the campers’ self esteem.

“Camp Riley is a stepping stone for promoting independence and social acceptance,” Dawson said. “They come here and they know this is ‘one place where I can just be myself.’”