SCDAI Bright Horizons Summer Camp

Since its beginning in 1983, the Bright Horizons Summer Camp is one of SCDAI's most successful programs. Located this year at the Easter Seals-UCP Timber Point Outdoor Center on the shores of beautiful Lake Bloomington in Hudson, IL the Bright Horizons Summer Camp's name is an apt description of the camp's purpose: brightening and broadening the vistas of sickle cell patients, ages 7 to 13. Each new day at Bright Horizons brings new and enriching experiences to the campers and here learning goes hand in hand with outdoor fun.

Each year approximately 35 adult volunteers -- doctors, nurses, professional counselors and instructors, accompany the campers. They're truly the good hands people, helping the children to enjoy a never-to-be-forgotten summer experience.

The joys of learning include instruction in first aid, swimming and water safety, boating, horseback riding and bowling plus arts and crafts. In addition, there is a traditional menu of camp pleasures, like hayrides, cookouts, nature hikes and sing-a-longs.

The program objectives:
To provide a setting that allows each child to feel security, love, understanding and a sense of belonging.
To enhance and build upon the child's self-esteem, self-worth and to promote and encourage personal development, creativity and cultural pride.
Components of the program structure are Group Processing intended to aid each child to focus on personal growth, to help them confront and understand their emotions, to reinforce their value systems and positive beliefs and to engender coping skills. Other program components included: Arts and Craft, African American History Cultural Workshops, Ecology and the Environment and Sickle Cell Education.

Funded by grants from corporate and private contributions, each summer SCDAI's Bright Horizons Summer Camp provides a unique camping experience for children ages 7 to 13. Go here if you would like to make a donation to SCDAI’s summer camp program