Blindness no barrier Sports clinics, camps held for visually impaired
In Room 128B of the Morrow Field House on the Slippery Rock University campus, Wendy Fagan, Jillian Stringfellow and Amanda Breed are planning a spring sports clinic, an event that a majority of the campers won't see.
And that would mean success for the trio.
They're doing the groundwork for the weeklong Envision Blind Sports Camp that will kick off July 19.
Fagan, an instructor in the adapted physical activity program and VIP Sports Camp and Clinic director at SRU, said, “Envision Blind Sports is a nonprofit organization. Its goal is to increase sport and physical activity for those who are blind and visually impaired.”
Envision is separate from Slippery Rock University.
The annual Envision sports camp offers more than 25 different sports each summer for campers ages 5 to 18.
Day clinics are also offered throughout the year so the attendees can reconnect with friends they met at camp, as well as give them additional opportunities to be physically active.
Fagan said, “We have programming all year 'round. We have several programs a month like the recent two-day ski trip.”
Fagan said Envision sports camps and clinics have been at Slippery Rock University for the past 13 years, starting with a summer camp in 2006.The camps and clinics continually try to offer more sports.Activities can include swimming, horseback riding, canoeing, tennis, golf and track and field events.Fagan said it's the organizers' aim to find new sports to add to the slate already offered and expand the opportunities for those who are blind or classified as visually impaired.Some sports such as swimming and canoeing lend themselves to the participation of blind athletes without many modifications.Bicycling is accomplished through the use of tandem bikes and a sighted partner. Track and field events also use sighted partners to allow participants to compete.Stringfellow is project coordinator in the physical and health education department at SRU and also a serves as program specialist for Envision.She said, “We also adapt any sport you can think of. You name it, we've tried it.”Activities such as kickball and tennis require the use of balls that make noise.A special softball makes a beeping noise when a switch is turned on. Footballs and kickballs contain internal bells that chime when rolled or thrown.Fagan said the most hazardous time in a game is when one of the balls becomes airborne and therefore silent.
Breed, a work-based learning experience project coordinator at SRU who is also a program specialist for Envision, said the trio is working on offering rugby at the upcoming summer camp this year using a ball that makes noise as it is jostled about in a scrum.Breed said, “We have some sports that are specifically for the blind and visually impaired.”One of those sports is goalball, a variant on soccer. Two teams of three members each try to prevent a ball from reaching their net. Team members are in a modified crab walk stance and slide back and forth to prevent a ball filled with bells from getting past them.The upcoming March 21 spring sports clinic will offer swimming, rock wall climbing, gymnastics, dance, goalball and horseback riding.There will even be a blind-adapted Easter egg hunt featuring beeping eggs that are built by police bomb squads across the country.“The devices in the eggs are similar to the ones they use,” said Fagan.In addition to the twice-yearly clinics and the annual summer camp, Fagan said, “We try to do two activities a month.”The mental benefits in participating can be just as important as the physical ones, said Stringfellow.“Blindness is usually a low-incidence disabiliy. There aren't more than one or two in a school,” she said.They are isolated without any peers, Stringfellow said, “that's why these camps are such a big deal.”
A big-enough deal, she added, that participants are willing to make the trip from North Carolina, Michigan and Kentucky to attend.The fall and spring clinics usually last about five hours. The summer camp runs a week with participants sleeping in SRU dorms and eating in its cafeterias.Participants play sports all day long. With 70 to 75 registered, the Envision Blind Sports Camp is one of the largest in the country.And it's not just the athletes who are involved.Stringfellow said, “Siblings can come with them to help in the transition. We blindfold them if they are going to participate in the same sports the blind athletes participate in.”In addition to relatives, the athletes are assisted by up to 35 volunteers who help run the camp.Mike Winkler, secretary of the Butler Lions Club, said the Butler club as well as the Lions Club District comprising Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Clarion and Lawrence counties, are supporters of Envision Blind Sports.Winkler said, “Our support is primarily monetary. The district gave them $2,000 recently. Wendy was at our February meeting where we gave her $700 for her program. It's a wonderful program. We have been supporting it for years.”Fagan said the summer camp gets a lot of repeat attendees but many more may not be aware the camps and the clinics exist.In between the clinics and the camps, Envision puts on weekend activities such as a recent ski weekend.Fagan said Envision is planning a blind rugby clinic for April 24 through the 26.“We've got two coaches coming all the way here from England,” she said.
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