Brandishing their hockey sticks like weapons, players dodged each other on blacktop, trying to slap a Wiffle ball past an unsuspecting goalie.
In the background, an announcer called the play-by-play over a microphone, then called a penalty. The miscreant and his wheelchair were guided to the sidelines for a time-out.
Hockey was just one of many activities taking place this week at the Muscular Dystrophy Association summer camp at Camp Hastings in Lake Villa.
About 60 young people from the Chicago metropolitan area descended on the northern Lake County camp as they have done since 1969 for a week of fun and frolic.
The campers, ranging in age from 6 to 21, all suffer from one of 40 different neuromuscular disorders categorically known as muscular dystrophy, camp director Bridget Carey said.
At camp, they are “able to do the things they aren’t able to do all the other 51 weeks of the year,” Carey said.
Camping activities are abundant. Besides hockey, campers can play basketball, go horseback riding and make arts and crafts. They can also participate in waterfront activities like swimming, boating and fishing. Although the campers are assigned to certain activities each day, they often sneak back to their favorites, Carey suspects.
“I’m absolutely certain they pay no attention to the assignments,” Carey said. “But that’s OK; they keep busy.”
Because the campers do not share identical afflictions or have the same level of mobility, each one is paired with a volunteer counselor for assistance. More than 90 volunteers are participating this season, including a full medical staff, Carey said.
Volunteer Heather Stempien is nearing veteran status, having been promoted to a cabin leader in this, her third season at camp.
“I come back because I love it,” Stempien said. “I love the kids and love helping them have a good week.”
Boosting the campers’ self-esteem is a paramount function of the program, Carey said. Messages are broadcast regularly over the public address system to reinforce individual accomplishments, she said.
It could be anything: “Johnny walked all the way from his cabin to the mess hall,” she said, using a hypothetical example. To someone with a physical disability, such a feat is a milestone, she said.
The week of festivities even mixed the past with the present. On Tuesday, for example, the wooded camp was reminiscient of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district in the 1960s, as campers decked out for “Hippie Day.”
Handmade tie-dyed T-shirts even were drying on clotheslines outside the brown cabins.
Thirteen-year old Aimee Reasoner from Elk Grove Village, the Illinois junior goodwill ambassador for MDA, dressed for the occasion, sporting a pink tie-dyed shorts set and bandana.
In her third summer at Camp Hastings, Aimee maintained an impartial stance, claiming she enjoyed all the people and all the activities. She cited only the abundance of mosquitoes and the week’s high temperatures as drawbacks.
“We’re all very sweaty,” she said.
Despite Carey’s assertion that the counselors, and especially the cabin leaders, are no strangers to camp high jinks, Aimee denied that her cabinmates were plotting any tricks on their leader.
“We don’t know if we’re going to do anything. She’s a cool unit leader,” Aimee said.
Her comment is evidence of the strong bonds that develop between the campers and their volunteer buddies. Program coordinator Lisa Vakharia mentions another: the large number of returning campers and returning counselors.
“Once they’re here,” Vakharia said, “they always come back.”
