Columbus YMCA shows inclusion with camp for special needs
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The Columbus YMCA is giving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities a fun camp experience.
The Y partnered with the “Special Needs – Special Spirits” organization for the weeklong camp.
Art & crafts, swimming, and, sports. Campers at the Columbus YMCA are participating in a week of activities to keep them active and engaged.
Activities director, Norma Jones, said it is a chance to provide teens and adults with disabilities an opportunity to get moving.
“They are the main attraction,” Jones said. “For instance, most of the camps that we do are for children and then we have some for adults but there are adults that do not have special needs. So, people can’t always keep up or catch up, they don’t always understand those things and so our volunteers here know how to reach the people at the stage they are.”
The Y has hosted the camp for several years.
Jones said the number of campers continues to increase every year.
“Our goal is never to increase money, as a matter of fact, all of our volunteers are full-time employees,” Jones said. “I am a full-time principal at another school, everybody works a job so we don’t have anybody. We don’t have any overhead and that has been one of our goals to not have overhead but it has enriched people’s lives a lot. So, I mean I feel good, I can’t help but feel good but I always have to give God the glory because he has done it.”
Jeremy Brock is the program director for the Columbus YMCA.
He said this unique camp is one way the Y can contribute to the community.
“It’s special to me and it’s a blessing to be able to give back to the community,” Brock said. “A special group of people who need assistance and need other people to look out for them and it just makes you thankful. I looked around and I got three kids of my own that are healthy and that is pretty independent. So, to be able to give back it just shows the kind of love we should have for each other.”
Jones said there are around 30 campers that are participating in the program.
