Envision camp introduces junior athletes to hockey, horseback riding, and more
Envision camp introduces junior athletes to hockey, horseback riding, and more
In August, more than sixty vision-impaired junior athletes, ages 5 to 18, visited Behrend for the Envision Blind Sports summer camp.
The camp introduces students to sports they have never tried, such as archery, rock climbing, and horseback riding. Some events are modified to keep the athletes safe. In the pool, for example, counselors tap swimmers’ shoulders with a foam pool noodle to signal that they are close to the wall.
Campers spent a week at Behrend, traveling from ten states, including Colorado and Hawaii. They played soccer and floor hockey and threw foam-tipped javelins. They bounced at a trampoline park and navigated a treetop ropes course.
“Some of these kids have been sidelined their whole lives,” said Wendy Fagan, an instructor in Slippery Rock University’s adapted physical activity program who founded Envision Blind Sports in 2007. “Our campers learn they can play sports that maybe they thought were closed off to them. That builds a lot of confidence.”