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Lots Of Watery Fun At PACK Summer Camp

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BY SIERRA MISION

SUNCOAST NEWS INTERN

Published: July 12, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - For an hour and a half, campers splashed, laughed and plotted in their pools. When they called their counselors over, some barely uttered a whisper, alerting the counselors to the impending doom. Others giggled and shouted for their counselor to come because they really wanted to tell them something.

The results were identical: the counselors were soaked.

They didn't get mad; some of them even anticipated the attack, bringing with them a change of clothes. Rather, they laughed and retreated back to their original spots, picking up a bucket or hose on the way to return the favor.

Such is the typical environment surrounding the Pasco Association for Challenged Kids - PACK - Water Day, complete with lots of laughs and splashes.

"They love it," the PACK Camp's co-director Jane Johnston, said. "They like being themselves, without judgment."

The children, more than two dozen in all, gathered last week at the River Ridge Presbyterian Church to get a chance to bond through games like basketball, where five children will come to participate. Then the counselors come, eager to knock down a basket or two, only to be outshined by their counterparts, who drain shot after shot.

Others sit at a table and color, while some piece together a puzzle, talking about their hobbies. A red wagon circulates through the room, too, symbolizing transportation, one place to another, one friend to another.

PACK Camp began in 1997, when Barry and Paula Cohen decided to start a summer day camp for the physically and mentally challenged. In the camp's first year, there were 18 children. The camp becomes more dynamic every year and, according to Johnston, it's an all year effort to prepare.

At the monthlong camp, there is about a one-to-one ratio between the counselors and campers, so the camp is always searching for people willing to help. From there, the prospective counselors are sent to training.

Camp organizers are always hunting for the funds to support it and pay the counselors, too.

Johnston says that, with the recent spending cuts, money for the PACK Camp was removed from Pasco County's budget, causing a mild panic to sift through the directors.

Thanks to businesses and organizations like Verizon and the Pasco Sheriff's Charities, however, the camp received more than $19,000 in operating funds from private sources this year. The money is paying for the camp's various activities, ranging from hot dog lunches to moonwalk days and, of course, Water Day.

Despite the economic worries, those involved with PACK Camp come to anticipate it every year. Two-year counselor Scott Penna has worked with autistic children since 1999 and returns to the camp for a variety of reasons, the top ones pertaining to the children.

When you go to PACK Camp, you're given the opportunity to see the kids grow, which means the counselors become more attached to the experience, Penna said. The positive atmosphere doesn't hurt, either. Sometimes the kids come in quiet and nervous, he continued.

But by the end of the camp, when they have been given the opportunity to talk and associate with other campers and counselors, they leave with a new confidence, he added.

"You can be having a bad day, come in, and a kid will give you a hug, and it changes your perspective on everything," said Penna.

Sierra Mision is a senior at Gulf High School.

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