Camp Courageous
- 7 Dec 05, 12:00 AM
Once you've rested up from the titanic struggle of buying Christmas presents, it's entirely possible that your thoughts might turn to holiday plans for next year. Of course, in the eyes of many non-disabled people, the mere fact that you've managed to leave the house to buy a pint of milk is indicative of admirable strength of character in overcoming the problems which life has so cruelly thrown in your way. So you shouldn't be too suprised to discover that those same people will frantically applaud your bravery should you actually manage to go on holiday.
Welcome to : 80 acres of land in the Pictured Rocks area of Jones County, Iowa, and temporary home to 5000 campers every year. Not sure whether it's for you? Well, it's "a special camp for special campers" so, as long as you're special, you should fit right in. (Lady Bracknell - who is having Royston Vasey flashbacks as a result of that slogan - is having to be restrained by Crippled Monkey from adding "there's nothing for you here" at this point. She has also been tittering in a rather unbecoming manner about the fact that the chief method of fundraising for the camp is the sale of fruitcakes.)
Camp Courageous appears to be very proud of the fact that it operates purely on voluntary funding, and the site lists lots of ways in which you can help. One of these is to send them items on their . Depending on how generous you're feeling, that can be anything from a a minibus to a can of shaving cream or a box of teabags. Or, erm, a cow. They want a cow (or a bullock - they're not fussy) to turn into mince. Having looked at the (admittedly rather impressive) list of , Lady Bracknell is unsure whether the activity of slaughtering and mincing said cow (or bullock) would fall under 'Farm Experience' or 'Wild Edible Hike'. It may be, of course, that the butchering won't be undertaken by the campers themselves. But then, the site does say that, "All people, regardless of ability level, have the right to opportunities found in the world around them," and "Campers learn to try a variety of creative and challenging activities and experience success".
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Comments
Better not send them a UK cow! It might be mad! Remember how we shipped thousands of ration packs to the USA after Hurricane Katrina and they rejected them in case of BSE... even the vegetarian ones! This entry makes me sigh and say "Only in America"...
Wottabout sending somebody from the Ouch team in the spirit of Beyound Bounders...ooops Bounderies and reporting back to us all?
This place sounds good! Ship me off for a break there and I like the sound of a "needs" list too! In my "needs" list there would definately have to be a chocolate fountain, and a hot tub for luxury!