The 8th annual Flint Hills Summer Fun Camp is just around the corner and review of this year’s applications is already underway.
Flint Hills Summer Fun Camp is an affiliated program of USD 383, originally founded by parents from the Flint Hills Autism Parent Support Network to give children with autism the chance to enjoy the same summer school opportunities as their peers.
“There wasn’t a place for children on the spectrum to go during the summer,” said Flint Hills Summer Fun Camp Grant Coordinator Kimberly Riechmann. “Other people weren’t equipped to take care of their special needs and if they did find a place to go it was just somewhere to go and do nothing all summer, which isn’t really good for them. They need to keep their academics and social training going. So it started with parent volunteers, and we got a partnership going with USD 383 and the Manhattan-Ogden Public Schools Foundation, and they let us use their buildings and we hired certified teachers from the district.”Image may be NSFW.
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Flint Hills Summer Camp was started in 2010 and continues today as a way to provide a structured, fun summer experience for children with autism-spectrum disorders and peer models.
“Year one it was just first through sixth grade,” Riechmann said. “Since then, they’ve expanded on what worked and what didn’t work and then realized we needed to go further. That’s how we ended up with the extra extensions as well.”
Each year the camp focuses on specific goals including: preventing cognitive regression over summer months, improving transition between school years, encouraging socialization skills with same-aged peers, and much more.
“The social aspect of autism is a huge factor,” Riechmann said. “It’s really good to help them with their transitions from school year to school year, especially in lower camps retaining that academic aspect, but the most beneficial of all the camps across the board is the social aspect because these children who get to a certain point and become isolated are making friends. That’s preventing the isolation and they’re adding all this practice with social interaction, which helps them become more successful in life.”
In addition to focusing on structured activities in the arts and physical activities, campers are also bussed on field trips and activities in the community.
“It’s not just a point of the autism,” Riechmann said. “It’s a point of them having summer camp like everybody else as well. They have fun with swimming lessons and the activities that they do, so its not like school per se.”
This summer, Flint Hills Summer Fun Camp will be located at Bluemont Elementary located at 714 Bluemont Avenue in Manhattan. The camp runs daily Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. throughout June and July.
Acceptance notifications for this year’s camp will be made beginning April 15.
