Southampton Fresh Air Home Welcomes Back Campers After Year Of Virtual Programs

Excitement was in the air as the co-ed sleep away camp for physically challenged children at the Southampton Fresh Air Home was welcoming campers back for a summer full of fun after the COVID-19 pandemic thwarted last year’s camp sessions.

This year marks the 120th year that the camp on Barkers Island Road has been dedicated to providing youth with physical disabilities with a safe and welcoming environment to play, socialize, mature, and develop physically, emotionally and psychologically. The camp teaches leadership skills, competition, independence, and confidence, while allowing campers to participate in a wide range of activities like swimming, sailing, biking, racket sports, computers, board games, and arts and crafts.

“Kids with disabilities can engage in all of these activities, too — and what we do is we give them a safe place to do that,” Executive Director Thomas Naro said.

After a year of challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and primarily virtual programming, the camp was finally able to welcome back campers on June 27 for the first day of camp. The day was marked with hugs, happy tears and nothing but excitement for the fun summer ahead.

“The smile and joy on these campers’ faces when they see their friends, their counselors, and the camp atmosphere has been incredible,” Mr. Naro said.

The children who attend the camp live with a range of physical disabilities such as muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, osteogensis imperfecta, spinal cord injuries, and head inuries, and range in age from 8 to 18 year old. Camp counselors work one-on-one as well as in groups to create an environment in which campers are fully involved, engaged, and most importantly, having fun. This year, the camp will welcome back campers in one week sleep-away sessions instead of the usual three week sessions, and will run through August 20.

“We started with in-person programming back in October, but we weren’t able to have any overnights,” Mr. Naro said. “So, on our first day of camp this year, to have a large group of 20 or so children with many staff members — you could just feel the joy radiating from the property.”

Though the pandemic posed challenges for bringing campers together last year, the camp staff was able to put together a full schedule of virtual programming and activities.

“Because we’re a residential camp, last year we weren’t able to have kids at camp in person because of the pandemic,” Mr. Naro said. “So we started running programs virtually, and though it wasn’t the same as having everyone in person, we were still able to recreate the feeling of having everyone come together, a feeling which was really needed during a difficult time.”

Mr. Naro explained that keeping up with virtual programming, and not canceling the camp entirely was extremely important in order to create a sense of community, and bring campers together during a time of intense physical isolation.

“Everyone faced a lot of isolation over the last year,” Mr. Naro said. “But if you consider a young child who has mobility issues, or a child in a wheelchair — their isolation was likely worse for many reasons.”

Though camp sessions are running in person this summer, the camp is continuing to run virtual programming in order to reach and engage more children in the camp experience.

“Post pandemic world, we sort of learned that through virtual programs, we could reach even more kids than we were already reaching,” Mr. Naro said. “Because we have a limited amount of children we can bring to camp given the size of the facility, continuing to run virtual camp lets us reach more kids.”

The camp has also expanded to become much more than just a summer camp, Mr. Naro explained. Programming, both virtual and in person, now runs year long, offering day trips, workshops, special events, and an 18+ program for alumni campers.

The camp kickstarted their summer with a June fundraiser event where donors were welcomed back to the campus, and camp alumni came to visit and help out.

“We’re simply so excited to be back and operational,” Mr. Naro said. “We’re extremely appreciative of the support from the community during this past year when things were difficult, and we’re looking forward to a great summer ahead.”