The Maryland School for the Blind (MSB) is offering several day and overnight camps for students who are blind or low-vision during the month of July.
The camp schedule kicks off with the TRECCK for Success program on the campus of MSB. This multifaceted adventure camp is designed to improve students’ Expanded Core Curriculum skills through a variety of experiences in socialization, self-determination and self-advocacy, independent living skills, technology, job readiness, and other compensatory aspects of vision loss (braille and low vision reading). Elementary students, ages 6-11, will attend the day camp from July 5-8 and middle/high school students ages 12-17 will participate from July 18-22.
Fun activities based around the camp theme “Utilizing animals for work, play and school” are planned and include field trips to the Baltimore County Humane Society and the Plumpton Park Zoo. Dogs and puppies from the Guiding Eyes for the Blind will be visiting and interacting with the students on campus on July 7 and 20.
Featured student activities include: Making Healthy Dog Biscuits, Making Our Own Lunches, Tie Dying T-Shirts, Meeting Guide Dog teams, Interacting with Guide Dog Puppies, Adapted Physical Education Opportunities, Tactile Graphics, Lego Animals and Zoo creation, Assistive Technology and a culminating presentation on Friday.
MSB Camp Abilities, a developmental sports and recreation camp for youth ages 9-17, will be held on the school’s campus from July 11-15, with a 2nd week taking place at Lions Camp Merrick in Nanjemoy, Maryland from July 25-29. MSB’s Camp Abilities has served students from Maryland, DC and Virginia for the past nine years and is the only overnight sports camp in the area for blind or low vision students. The program helps students to develop physical fitness and social skills by participation in a variety of sports and activities, including beep baseball, soccer, swimming, track and field, judo, rock-climbing, archery, hiking, arts and crafts, and traditional campfires.
MSB is partnering with the Baltimore Orioles and the League of Dreams, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing the sports of baseball and softball to people of all abilities, for a beep baseball clinic at Camp Abilities on Tuesday, July 12. Volunteers from both organizations will be participating in the sport of beep baseball with the MSB campers.
The theme of MSB’s extended school year (ESY) program, which runs the entire month of July is “Let’s Go to Summer Camp.” Fun and educational activities will focus around this theme. MSB summer programs are crucial for enhancing and retaining skills learned by students during the regular school year.