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| CORNPLANTER GIVES THEM A PLACE IN THE SUN
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| DENNY BONAVITA IN , ALLEGHENY, SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 1973
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| By now, most of us have an idea of what Camp Cornplanter is.
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| It's a nine week, $60,000 a year, 85 staff summer camp for about 500
children from private homes and 100 Polk State School residents.
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| Its children are exceptional; the camp is operated by five chapters of the
Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children.
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| But, except for a fence around the swimming pool and a few other unobtrusive adjustments,
Camp Cornplanter physically remains basically as it was 15 years ago when first leased from the Allegheny National Forest.
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| It's a "normal" camp in most senses of the word. But, permeating the entire pine rimmed valley
is an extraordinary degree of staff dedication, camper appreciation and just plain love. It radiates everywhere, epitomized in the
perpetual, sometimes ecstatic and sometimes just good natured grin that everyone wears: the Camp Cornplanter Smile.
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| Eleven years ago, I wore that smile for a summer as a Senior Counselor. I took the job as a source of
much needed cash for a college student. When the camp closed, I had a feeling that I couldn't express; this place; its kids enjoying
themselves and enjoying nature, often for the only escape they know from the structured world of the retarded during the entire year,
was someplace special.
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| I can't express the feelings in words. But Tuesday's visit brought it back like the remembered
taste of fresh picked strawberries.
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| There were the kids, nearly 100 of them this week, moving from site to site within the valley clearing or
along the tree shaded trails that trace the rim of the ridges above it. They buzzed and bubbled along in cabin groups of 12, and within each
group was sometimes discernible the mini groups of three campers and one counselor that wed each other every waking hour during the camper's stays.
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| There were again the expressions of wonder at the sight of a salamander; of masculine pride at having hit
a softball, or feminine delight at having created a multi- hued mosaic of posted paper; of affection expressed by an impetuous, sometimes knee
shaking hug of a nearby counselor; of sheer joy at being allowed to run - to run in the sunshine with no fear of onlookers who did not understand
and accept the campers as people.
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| Hovering over it all is Annabel Bollinger. She's mad at photographer Gary Lester and I by now because we used
a photo of her in this space instead of one showing another one of her beloved campers or counselors. But she and her husband Cliff put the camp
together in 1959, when they convinced skeptical authorities that these children needed love and a chance to enjoy life more than they needed
white painted walls and sheltered facilities.
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| Today, she and her assistant director George Williams of Sharon watch the system she evolved appear to run itself
during the day, with program directors and senior counselors instructing in swimming, sports, arts and crafts, music, creative dramatics and nature.
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| Junior counselors and in-training counselors shepherds campers through hikes, cookouts, talent nights,
and story telling, and, a maintenance, laundry, and cooking staff keep the physical plant humming.
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| She started to show us around. "Come on, put your shirt on, Cecil" she called to one struggling lad. "Here'’s a
Warren boy," to another. "The staff runs things so well, I could leave—see?," to us. And, over and over words like, "wonderful out here", "we don't
have any homesick kids, just homesick parents"”, and the like.
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| As we walked, we saw---kids camping.
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| Kids having a ball splashing about, kids teasing counselors and being teased good naturedly in return. Kids
sprucing up cabins and delighting in our cameras. Kids eager to show off a skill or shyly setting about learning a new one.
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| Maybe the feeling I can’t express has something to do with the way the brochure says "the educable and trainable
mentally retarded" accurate though they may be, fade into the likenesses of---people. Their special needs are looked after by the counselors, but
the camp is theirs to enjoy. They are not limited by what they don't have. Rather, they are encouraged to exploit those human gifts that they do
have in common with the rest of us.
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| There is more to know about Camp Cornplanter, of course. The fees, the admissions policy, and a blizzard of factual
information can be obtained by writing Box 274, Warren 16365.
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| But, the spirit of the camp, enervated by the Bollingers and the directors, implemented by the counselors, and,
fulfilled in the joy of the campers...that, I still can’t express.
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| I can only feel it.
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| And, it's a very good feeling.
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