Inclusive
Summer Camp
for all
T oby Doremus loves summer camp. For the last six years, Toby has
attended Camp Inclusion, a day camp hosted at Folly Quarter Middle
School. He’s surrounded by friends both new and old, has gone on
fun fi eld trips like berry picking or museums, and loves the bond
with the counselors. They’re his friends, too.

Speaking over the phone from his apartment complex in Columbia, MD, with his
mother nearby, Toby described why he keeps coming back.

“The activities there are really fun to do. The fi eld trips are to fun places. The
counselors are really fun to be around,” said Toby, 22.

The last two summers, Toby has been a junior counselor at Camp Inclusion, helping
out around the camp and acting as an aid to the counselors. He’s aged out of the
program, but continues to be involved.

Toby was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. It was surgically repaired
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and he has attended speech therapy, but he still has a mild speech
impediment. His mother, Marianne, has seen her son blossom in
unexpected ways thanks to camp.

“Ambition, self confi dence, and just looking forward to Camp
Inclusion,” she said. “They have a morning and afternoon program.

And he likes to go all day…and he’s not normally a morning person,”
she laughed.

Camp Inclusion is unlike most summer camps: The majority of
campers at Camp Inclusion are special-needs kids.

“For me, kids with disabilities can have a stable environment to work
within and where they can have a lot of fun, too,” said Toby.

“When you say ‘stable environment,’ what do you mean?” asked
Marianne. “Not a lot of noise that may distract them.”
“Kind of quiet? Not noisy. That’s good for people with autism, right?”
said Marianne. Toby agreed.

Camp Inclusion lives up to its name. While many of the campers have
disabilities, Camp Inclusion is open to all students. For the founders,
it’s about equality and ending the stigma surrounding disabilities.

“The blending of students with and without special needs is important
because it is a basic human right to participate as an active member
of society,” said camp co-founder AJ Rosenthal. “Each individual
should feel valued and accepted regardless of their diff erences.”
With an interest in education, and now a current educator in Howard
County, Rosenthal learned through his mentor back in 2009, that there
was an achievement gap in the special-needs community. There were
many summer programs that focused on one-on-one therapies or
camps for the general population, but there were no summer camps
specifi cally designed for special-needs students.

Rosenthal noticed that these students weren’t being actively engaged
in the summer, challenged or partaking in social activities. “Because
of that, it was kind of like they were hitting the reset button and
starting back at square one at the beginning of the school year,” said
Rosenthal. What started as a sports camp for local special-needs children evolved
into an all-inclusive day camp with sports, crafts, games, fi eld trips
and action-packed activities.

“Some of the summer programs the kids end up going to are very
academic based,” said Chris Ashcraft, camp administrator. “There
is not a lot of time to just learn in that social setting. To be able to
have an environment that focuses just on social skills creates a good
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