The Little Rock Foundation brings activities to visually impaired
By KRISTINA SCALA & SHANNON CAULFIELD
Running, swimming and kicking a ball are some activities many people take for granted. Usually, we take the simplest things, such as our eyesight or our motor skills and use them without thinking about those who might have a disability impairing them from doing certain activates. At Camp Little Rock, children with disabilities spent one week participating in sports activities such as archery, kickball, swimming, fishing and more.
The Little Rock Foundation (TLRF) was founded in 1997. This nonprofit organization is named after Rocco Fiorentino of Voorhees. Rocco was born with Retinopathy of Prematurely (ROP), which caused his blindness.
Rocco’s mother, Tina, runs the camp to help children with disabilities have similar experiences in sports than children without disabilities.
“Visually impaired and blind is the key component for the program,” said Fiorentino.
Fiorentino found that many camps would not allow children with a disability to join due to a liability risk. That’s another reason why Camp Little Rock started.
Camp Little Rock is an annual, six-week program for visually impaired children. The camp is a free camp for children from ages 7 to 14.
Tina collaborated with the YMCA in 2009. Children who wanted to attend the camp were offered an all inclusive, six-week program, free of charge for all families. The kids had an option to choose how long they wanted to attend the day camp or if they wanted to attend the overnight camp.
Fiorentino mentioned the training staff members have to prepare for the program. All-day workshops were set up for the YMCA camp counselors to help prepare them for handling children with disabilities and keep them in a safe environment.
“I researched it for about a year to try and find a camp that would be compatible with the challenges that we faced, and the YMCA was very receptive to bringing the children in and then allowing me to improve the camp program,” Fiorentino said.
She wanted to make sure that the children were able to participate in activities for adaptability.
During the camp, the children participate in archery, swimming, dancing, boating and other activities where the children learn to adapt to performing that activity.
Fiorentino said when they did the archery activity, the children shot at balloons so they would know when they hit the target.
“Its just little things that we use to the adaptive program to make it successful,” Fiorentino said.
Maria Ceferatti and her son, Simon Bonenfant, 10, have been going to Camp Little Rock for two summers.
Simon has the same eye condition as Rocco.
Ceferatti heard about the camp and foundation through friends. The organization Ceferatti works for ironically was featured on the same network station as TLRF. Both Ceferatti and Firoentino managed to bump into each other on the set and that is how Simon started attending the camp.
“I can see each year he is more and more willing to stretch out his comfort zones so as a parent that is like thrilling to watch,” Ceferatti said.
Simon had many things to say about the camp. Even though he is 10 years old, his mom said he is “11 going onto 50.” Simon was getting ready to play soccer; he took a drink of water and was not shy when talking about the time he spends at the camp.
“Just because you have a disability doesn’t mean that you can’t do things,” said Simon. ”If you have a disability then you can work through your disability and work through your needs. I feel like Camp Little Rock [does that].”
Bonenfant did not have a specific camp activity that he enjoyed most, but he said he is always up for trying new activities.
On the basketball courts, a group was playing wall ball. Standing in line was Rocco.
Rocco is not only the CEO of the organization; he is a CIT for Camp Little Rock.
“I think it gives a lot of these kids an incredible experience that they don’t normally have and don’t get the opportunity to do. For some of them this is what their whole summer is — they look forward to this all year,” Rocco said.
The Little Rock Foundation funds multiple programs, including family resource centers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Willis Eye Hospital. It funds a scholarship program, a holiday party education for legislators as well as running programs for Blindness Awareness Month in October.
“The Blindness Awareness Walk is Sept. 29 at Camp Ockanickon,” said Debbie Nichols, community events coordinator for The Little Rock Foundation. “There are 44 states involved and we have a walk to kickoff the whole month.”
To learn more about the Little Rock Foundation or Camp Little Rock, visit www.tlrf.org.
