For many parents with special needs children, finding a summer camp can be a nightmare.

This year Windreach Recreational Village moved in to fill the gap with their second Windreach Explorers Camp, a blended summer camp for special needs and able bodied children.

Campers were from five to 12 years old, although some special needs teenagers were accommodated.

Camp leadership was also "blended". Many of the camp counsellors had physical challenges which gave them a special insight into how to help campers with special needs.

"The minute I turned 16, I telephoned Windreach to ask if I could be a counsellor," said Mount St. Agnes student Ashlee Brady-Kelly, 16. "That was in January."

This month she was one of 13 other counsellors, and four adult group leaders.

"I absolutely love doing this," Ashlee told The Royal Gazette this week.

"I wanted to do it last year, but I wasn't old enough," said Ashlee. "I worked in the stables and I saw the kids every day but I couldn't go over and talk to them."

Ashlee started the camp wanting to be a paediatrician, but has now changed her mind.

"Working at the camp makes me want to be a paraprofessional or a counsellor," she said. "It has opened up my eyes and made me think I could help children without being medical."

Ashlee said she enjoys the one-on-one attention with the campers.

Ashlee has cerebral palsy.

"I am the clumsiest person around and I fall daily," she said. "I am supposed to walk with an aid, but I don't. I just want to be treated like anyone else. If I fall, just help me up. If I do something wrong I should be punished like everyone else.

"I think the kids have showed me that it is okay to be different. We are not going to change but we can still be happy with ourselves. The kids are a lot more accepting. They showed me that it is okay to be me."

Group leader Katura HortonPerinchief, 25 recently returned to Bermuda after diving for Bermuda in the 2004 Olympics.

"This was my second time doing the summer camp," she said. "I think this year went a lot more smoothly."

Another junior counsellor Andrew Faries, 19, said he has enjoyed working at Windreach so much he is considering changing his career path from information technology to counselling.

"I try to be a mentor to the kids," said Andrew. "They come to me with questions sometimes. Some kids come up and give me hugs."

Andrew has been heavily involved in teaching the campers adaptive, inclusive sports. He is in a wheelchair.

"We do sports like bocce ball, basketball and we might do tennis," he said.

When playing the adaptive inclusive sports, the able bodied children in the group also take to wheel chairs.

"Doing adapative sports in a wheelchair can be difficult," said Andrew. "So we have to teach them how.

"Being in a wheelchair presents all sorts of challenges."

Jeanie Flath, programmes and events co-ordinator at Windreach said the special sports are good for the special needs camper, but also good for the able bodied children.

"They get an awareness of what it is like," she said. "We try to develop in our young children an awareness of special needs."

Ms Horton-Perinchief said she has seen the blended camp work wonders. "The children are inquisitive," she said. "It is so important to have camps like this where children learn that not everyone is going to look just like them.

"Not everyone is going to do things the same way. It doesn't mean that they can't be included or be friends.

"You watch the little kids here, they don't care who is in a chair, who is deaf, they are everyone's friend."

She said she has learned as much from the campers as they have learned from her.

The camp took place in August. On a given week there were between 40 and 50 campers.

Each week had a special theme including: our Island Home, a map project; Bermuda Natural History where campers built zen gardens and bird houses; Bake Bermuda; and Bermuda Forts.

While in the camp, students did all the usual camp things. They sang songs, played games, talked, baked and did arts and crafts projects. They also had daily contact with the Windreach animals.

"Some of the campers go out and feed and clean the animals," said Mrs. Flath. "I try to get at least one group to help with the grooming. It has worked out really well. One of the little girls hasn't been able to get in the stall in a chair, but we open up the door so she can touch one of the ponies."

The summer camp also accommodates a few special needs teenagers. "We wanted to make sure that our population of special needs kids would have access to the camp if they needed that," Mrs. Flath said.

"Upstairs, we have tried to develop age appropriate things for our teenagers. We have computers, for example. A lot of times people when they assess someone in a wheelchair, for example, treat them like they are a child, instead of giving them age appropriate processing."

Before starting the camp, there was a three day orientation workshop for group leaders and counsellors. Mrs. Flath said not every junior counsellor decided to dedicate themselves to working with children. "It has evolved that Andrew and Ashlee and many of the junior counsellors enjoy children," she said.

"That has not been the experience for every junior counsellor. We have had junior counsellors after two weeks were like, 'I made a mistake. I really don't like kids, at all'. That is okay, but these guys, their heart is in there. They really love the kids."

Mrs. Flath said Windreach hoped to make the camp an annual summer event.

"Many of our campers have found it difficult to find a summer camp in the past," said Mrs. Flath. "Either the camps aren't accessible or they won't take children with special needs.

"It is a mindset that has to change. People said that a blended summer camp would never work. This camp has worked really well. I think there should be more integration in the school system. These kids are having a blast, and they are really stimulated."

The camp is largely funded by a $60,000 donation from last year's End to End walk. Part of the money went to hiring a full time nurse for the summer camp, Veronica Baptista.