As Disability Pride Month continues, Camp No Limits is celebrating its 20th year.
As Disability Pride Month continues, Camp No Limits is celebrating its 20th year.
Camp No Limits is an overnight camp for children and adolescents with limb loss or limb differences and their families. The goal of the camp is to increase the independence of children and adolescents who live with limb loss and limb differences.
This year’s camp is being held in 12 different locations across the country.
On Friday, Camp No Limits visited Quinnipiac University where physical and occupational therapists, prosthetists, as well as QU occupational therapy and physical therapy students volunteered along with teen and adult mentors with limb loss and limb differences.
“It’s super important for them to learn that there really are no limits to what’s possible to be able to adapt to overcome,” said Mary Leighton, the founder of Camp No Limits.
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Leighton said she founded the camp in 2004 after working with a boy who was missing all four limbs.
Once she realized there were little to no resources for him, she said, she had the idea to start Camp No Limits. She hopes with Camp No Limits, she and the volunteers can help level the playing field for those who face these challenges on a daily basis.
“Whether they want to be able to play sports, whether they want to be able to hike, recreation, those sorts of things, can they even go to the bathroom by themselves,” Leighton explained. “Those daily life skills are really important and sometimes it’s really hard to figure out those things if you’re missing all four limbs or if you’re missing both of your limbs.”
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Dr. Valerie Strange, a clinical professor of occupational therapy at Quinnipiac University, organized things on the university’s end.
The event was held in QU’s student center. Dr. Strange said it’s beneficial for students and those with limb loss and limb differences and their families.
“We’ve got folks who have put on a running plate for the first time and ran. We’ve got folks who have been fitted for bikes who then purchase bikes, kids who try out wheelchair basketball for the first time and join wheelchair basketball teams,” she explained. “It’s a place where they find their people and they find their passion with the activities that are offered.”
At Camp No Limits no one is left out.
Adrienne Damicis knows this all too well. She has been attending since it began. In 2004, she was 8 years old. Twenty years later, she’s now paying it forward as a mentor.
“It’s really, really special to be celebrating the 20th anniversary with Camp No Limits. It’s a really personal milestone for me because I’ve really grown up with the camp system,” Damicis explained.
She was born with a disease that left her parents with the decision to have her foot amputated. She said while having to adapt to a prosthetic as a young child, Camp No Limits changed her life.
“Camp No Limits was the first time I was exposed to physical therapy, as well as meeting a bunch of different prosthetists and adult athletes and adaptive athletes," she said.
It was the new experiences and also the friendships, the community, and ultimately the family she said she formed throughout the years of attending.
“There’s a special bond that comes from people that have gone through the same experiences as you and are dealing with the same differences in life. So, I think we connect on a deep level,” Damicis' added.
Camp No Limits started in Maine with four children and now has 11 locations nationwide.
The camp started with energizer activities on Friday morning and will include a field day on Friday afternoon with relay and team games, biking, and arts and crafts.
On Saturday, July 13, sports will include sled hockey and wheelchair basketball clinics.
