Lucas Camilo

After quite a bit of hype, summer camp started today.  It was a very warm day by Seattle June standards (upper 70s!), and the campers were ready.  As soon as we got to camp, Lucas answered the counselors’ sweet “What’s your name?” with “you want to feed the bunnies!”  With a little translation we explained what Lucas was saying (and coaxed him into saying his name).  One of the many great things about the Seattle Children’s Playgarden is that they are very into kids being self-directed in play.  So if Lucas wanted to feed the bunny, a counselor was going to help him find bunny food and locate a bunny.  Lucas was thrilled.

Camp officially kicked off with circle time (also good news for Lucas – this is his favorite part of the school day).  I (Krista) left Lucas with the other campers and his nurse, and I sat in the shade and watched.  God bless camp counselors.  These people were overflowing with enthusiasm for the flowers, sunny days, songs about squirrels, and the rules.  (There are two.  Rule number one: Stay inside the fence.  Rule number two: Have FUN!)

When they got to singing the call-and-response “A Boom-Chica-Boom” I burst into tears.  I didn’t know that I had stored that song deep down in the bank of happy-summer-camp memories, but apparently its been there since the last time I sang it, probably as a camp counselor 20 years ago.  Just a few days ago I was feeling really down about Lucas’s limitations.  And then today, here he is, getting to experience a version of my own happy childhood memories.  But even better, maybe.  He’s in a camp that is very explicitly welcoming to kids of all abilities and disabilities, with counselors who are new to this but full of enthusiasm for including kids like Lucas.  Like I said, God bless the camp counselors.

I left, and returned four hours later — a longer day than his school day, and all outside.  I expected to find him lying alone in the grass.  But no!  He had rested, but he was up, sitting with two counselors and one kid.  One of the guys was strumming a guitar softly, while the other one read a story about a bat to Lucas and the other camper.  These counselors and so young and sweet, I almost burst into tears again as the guy reading held the book up so Lucas could see the pictures.  He held the book way too low for Lucas to actually see, but I resisted jumping in immediately because Lucas looked so pleased.  (I learned later that Lucas had insisted that the counselor keep reading.)

I didn’t have the camera out for the pictures of the bunny feeding, but I’ll get those before the week is over.