Campers will get another year at Spearhead - Dan Rodgerson

Campers will get another year at Spearhead
The Greenville News - Greenville, S.C.
Author: Anna B Brutzman
Date: Apr 7, 2005
Start Page: A.1
Section: Front
Text Word Count: 715

Document Text
Civitans camp session to cost $25,000

By Anna B. Brutzman

STAFF WRITER

Brutzman@greenvillenews.com

Hundreds of developmentally disabled children and adults will return to Camp Spearhead this summer, but it's going to cost camp leaders $25,000 as opposed to the $1 fee of years past.

Parents might prefer that money go toward camp activities, but they said they are still happy their children will return to the camp they know one more year.

Camper parent Sheri Price, a special education teacher, said she was relieved because her foster son, Larry Keasler, might not be able to attend a new camp if it had limited facilities. He uses a wheelchair and needs to stay in an air-conditioned space, she said.

"He's no longer in school so camp's all he has left," she said. "It's going to be the worst day of his life when I tell him he can't go back to camp."

Tammy Wakefield, also a special education teacher, said it's important to keep the camp going while a new Camp Spearhead is under construction at Pleasant Ridge County Park in northern Greenville County. Developmentally disabled people who skip a summer of programs such as Camp Spearhead could lose basic skills, she said.

The Greenville County Recreation District, which took over management of Camp Spearhead in February, approached Greenville Civitan Charities Inc. about a month ago to negotiate a new, eight-week lease for the site used for the camp since 1992, said Dan Rodgerson, executive director of the Recreation District. Repairs and insurance costs for the camp this year are pushing costs over $30,000, he said.

New site not ready

He said the new site at Pleasant Ridge County Park has not broken ground yet and working with the Civitans was the only way for Camp Spearhead to open again this year.

Camp Spearhead erupted into controversy a year ago when the Civitans asked the county's Disabilities and Special Needs Board, the camp's former operator, for a new lease on the Cleveland camp. No written lease for the camp - for which Spearhead leaders said they paid $1 a year - was found, and both sides sued after the Civitans asked for an annual $25,000 fee.

All litigation was dropped in December when the Recreation District offered to take over and relocate camp to Pleasant Ridge County Park, boosted by $500,000 from the Greenville County Council and another $500,000 in other donations, Rodgerson said.

Greenville Civitan Club President Ellen Pourmand said her club's camp has always been available to Spearhead under certain conditions.

She said the $25,000 fee would pay for insurance to cover any incidents at Camp Spearhead.

Whatever is left, she said, would go toward projects the club has carried out on in the community for years - including care packages to soldiers and Easter baskets for developmentally disabled adults.

The long-term prospects of the 178-acre property are uncertain, she said, and the Civitans have had a couple of offers to purchase it.

She said no specific uses for that land have been discussed yet.

Supporting a move

The camp itself is on about 65 acres and has operated for low-income and special-needs children and adults for several decades, Pourmand said.

"We'd like that part to remain as a camp serving individuals from Greenville County," she said. "At this point, it's hard to say if that's what would happen."

Camper parent Pat Grissop said her son Eric got used to attending the Civitans camp, though she supports a move. She said she would arrive early to camp with Eric and sit by the lake - when a busload of children arrived, they could hear the chatter and screams of excitement.

"When the kids got off that bus, they knew exactly where to go and what to do," she said.

'Staff writer Anna B. Brutzman can be reached at 298-4394.

TEACHERS, PARENTS HAPPY FOR ONE MORE YEAR AT CAMP

"Most often it negates what you do all year if you don't have something for the children to do over the summer."

-- Tammy Wakefield, special education teacher

"They have improved that site so much. It makes me ill to have to start from scratch."

--Sheri Price, camper parent, special education teacher

"He's excited to have one more year there."

-- Pat Grissop, camper parent

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