Camp I Am Special has grown so much since it first began back in 1983. What started out as a just a couple of weeks of camp a summer has grown to a full summer of camp sessions. We have also outgrown our current office space! Right now, we rent space in a building up at Marywood which is on the same property as the camp grounds. The current office is about a quarter mile from the camp site.
Camp I Am Special has been blessed to be able to build a new building right down at the camp site. This new building will house new office space, a meeting room, two handicap accessible bathrooms, a sensory room, a laundry room, a snack room, and storage! (If you don't have time to read this whole post, please scroll down and check out the flier at the end!)
We will use to office space throughout the year while we are working to prepare camp. This will also house all of our secure and confidential files.
The new meeting room will be used for staff training and volunteer training. It will also be used for parent trainings during the year as well as some of our off-season events such as Super Saturdays.
The sensory room is a much needed addition to camp! In the past, we have set up a sensory room either in the chapel, or in a corner of the dining hall. By having a dedicated sensory room, we will be able to better serve our Campers who have autism and other sensory processing disorders. Our sensory room will provide a quiet, calming atmosphere for Campers who are over-stimulated and need time to calm down before rejoining the group. We are excited to stock the sensory room with a variety of items to help our Campers in this process.
Adding two handicap accessible bathrooms will greatly help our Campers and Buddies, especially during rainy days. When we are all in the dining hall and a Camper has to use the bathroom, they have to go out in the rain to get to the cabins. We do our best to keep dry with umbrellas, but Florida rainstorms are often more than an umbrella can handle. The new building will be right next to our dining hall, so Campers and Buddies will have a protected walkway to walk under. This will also be handy for our Campers who are using the sensory room.
The snack room will be a place where we can prepare special diet meals. This will help the kitchen staff out greatly, as there will be far less chance of cross-contamination of allergens and will free up work space and storage in the kitchen.
The storage will provide a secure, locked space for camp materials and will be where we can store the medicine cart when it is not in use.
The new building will also have a washer and dryer. The current washer and dryer are camp run nearly all day and all night to keep up with our laundry at camp. Having an extra washer and drying running simultaneously will help our staff tremendously!
There has been a lot of great progress on the building lately. Here are some pictures of the building development!
We are going to be hosting a Blessing of the Beams on Saturday January 24th down at Camp St. Johns. This will be an Open House from 10:00-2:00. Light refreshments will be served and we ask that you wear comfortable shoes since this is a construction site.
You will be able to explore our new building and write prayers or messages on the beams and studs. We hope that you will join us and have your words and blessings be a part of our camp forever! Please share this flier with anyone you feel might be interested in attending! All are welcome-- Campers, Buddies, volunteers and friends of camp.
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