Ready to Roll: Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp 2018

This week, from July 23-27, Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp will welcome more than 40 enthusiastic campers at the UCSB Recreation Center. Funding from the Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation allows all campers to attend the week for free.

The annual camp provides sports and recreation skills development for children, youth, and young adults between the ages of 6 to 19 years old who can use a wheelchair to participate in activities. This year more than 80 volunteers will assist the campers.

Camp activities range from beginner to advanced wheelchair sports and recreation activities, including rugby, basketball, tennis, hand cycling, swimming, kayaking, SCUBA diving, racquetball, power soccer, climbing wall, ropes course, dancing, dodgeball, boccia and pickle ball.

Counselors and instructors are wheelchair users themselves, so they become natural mentors to the campers on how to stay healthy and active while living with a disability.

Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp began in 1986 and is the only camp of its kind on the Central Coast. It attracts campers from the tri-counties and beyond, including Los Angeles and Bakersfield, and even Oregon. Transportation for campers is provided for free from Oxnard, Santa Maria, Lompoc, Carpinteria and Santa Barbara.

Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital and Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation sponsor the camp with support from individuals, organizations, and businesses in the community.

The camp is led by director Rene Van Hoorn, Recreation Therapist at Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital.