Happy Campers Aren’t Just the Kids at Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp in Santa Barbara

What started as a reluctant volunteer gig as a photographer turned into an annual labor of love for David Powdrell, a Carpinteria resident and longtime shooter around town, who plays keyboards and cowbell with The Nombres and has a day job as a CPA.

A friend called 15 years ago, “and asked if I’d drive to UCSB to photograph the Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp, a camp for kids that I knew absolutely nothing about,” shared Powdrell. He reluctantly agreed, but he said he was “confident that these kids would be sad, mad, and perhaps miserable.”

Powdrell continued, “I was completely wrong! The kids were happy, grateful, smiling, laughing, and fun! After an hour of photographing that Monday morning 15 years ago, I called my wife and asked her to cancel all my business appointments. I would be photographing these amazing kids for the entire week, hoping to fill their scrapbooks and give them digital photographs to share with friends and family living outside the area. In the course of the week, they would go on to accomplish incredible acts of courage, make lifelong friends, and smile and laugh with gratitude in their eyes.”

Sponsored by Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital and Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation, the annual week-long Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp began in 1986 and is the only camp of its kind on the Central Coast. Not only do all campers attend for free, but free transportation is also provided from Oxnard, Santa Maria, Lompoc, Carpinteria, and Santa Barbara. (Campers from Los Angeles, Bakersfield, and Temecula are also invited to attend.)

The camp provides a safe and supportive environment for mobility-challenged kids to participate in a wide range of sports. Offerings range from beginner to advanced-level wheelchair sports and recreation activities, including rugby, basketball, tennis, hand cycling, swimming, boxing, scuba diving, racquetball, an obstacle course, a climbing wall, a ropes course, dancing, dodgeball, pickleball, and even “a festival of fun.”

Powdrell is among the more than 50 volunteers who assisted the approximately 40 campers (ages 6 to 21) last month at the UCSB Recreation Center. In addition to volunteers, counselors and instructors are wheelchair users themselves, so they become natural mentors to the campers on how to stay healthy and active while living with a disability.

“The camp staff and volunteers are amazing, dedicated, and passionate,” said Powdrell. “They all go beyond the call of duty to make every camper have the absolute best week-long experience possible. When the bug bites a new volunteer, he or she typically returns year after year.”

He continued, “The Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp empowers kids to be more independent. Through adaptive sports and activities, they learn valuable life skills, build resilience, and develop a strong sense of self-worth. The camp has a positive impact on the mental well-being of the children, too. Self-esteem is enhanced, stress is reduced, and the sense of isolation is reduced, all leading to a positive outlook on life.

“One camper shared with me that this week was the only week of the year that he felt completely ‘normal.’ Another shared that her town didn’t have any camps with similar programs or opportunities.”

The greatest reward, Powdrell said, “is when a kid overcomes what they thought was impossible. One boy, who dreaded heights, climbed to the top of the rock wall. Another, who ‘doesn’t swim,’ was scuba diving at the end of the camp experience.”

Powdrell has high praise for director René Van Hoorn, Recreation Therapist and Manager of Community Programs at Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital, who leads the camp, as well as all the staff, volunteers, sponsors, and supporters. “They should be celebrated, for they are making the world a better place, one child at a time … let’s hope that the Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp inspires others to create similar opportunities for children with disabilities around the world,” said Powdrell.

Click here for a video about the camp. For more information about next summer’s camp, call (805) 569-8999 x82102.