The Rambling Pines Inclusion Camp is a free two week program sponsored by the Easter Seals Georgia Coalition that has been open for seven years and is right now serving about 25 children with and without disabilities.

The camp takes the children to a variety of fun events.

“We’ve done a fishing rodeo, taken a trip to the aquarium, visited a children’s museum, and today we’re swimming,” said Shannon Carroll, who heads the program.

Carroll is the Inclusion Coordinator for the Kids Advocacy Coalition which leads the program. She provides support to families who have children with special needs and to the childcare providers that care for those with special needs.

The idea behind it is to get both children with and without disabilities around each other performing the same activities to make the children without disabilities more aware of what it’s like to have one.

The children may be having fun too much fun to be aware of the life lessons that they are learning — camper Dante Garder said the best thing about the camp was “the swimming” — but, the parents and counselors have a good idea of how much the experience will help the children who attend it to understand each other.

“The best thing is being able to put my children around children with disabilities so that they can see that disabled children can do the same things that everyone else can. My kids have also learned how to help out,” Rewanna King said. She has two children in the program without disabilities.

The camp also encourages children with disabilities to get out and do things with other children who have the same, different or no disability.

“The children get to be together and do hands-on activities together. I love the inclusion. It’s good for everybody,” staff member Dixie Pittman, who is spending her second year as a staff member in the program, said.

While the focus of the program is on the children, everyone can learn something from each other in such a diverse environment, even the counselors.

“It’s exciting to be able to deal with kids that most people may not have the patience or don’t take the time to work with. When they accomplish something they couldn’t do before they just glow and it’s a good feeling to know that you influenced that and were a part of it,” staff member Virginia Brown, who’s been working with the program for two years, said.

For more information on this or any other program that the KAC offers or to get your child involved in the programs call (229) 382-9919.