Local Group Helps Out At Camp For Autistic Kids

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A group of volunteers from Moapa Valley spent a week serving some youngsters with special needs at a Sunshine Nevada Organization camp for kids with autism.

The camp, called “Camp I Am” was held June 29 – July 1 at Torino Ranch, a children’s camp facility in the mountains just southwest of the Las Vegas valley.

Serving at the camp were eight Moapa Valley residents. Natalie Jacobsmeyer, her adult son Garrett, Jorja Freeman, and Kenzie Hughes all served as camp counselors during the week. Joseph Barnes, Jackson Burt, Marcus Leavitt and Braden Leavitt worked as lifeguards during the camp.

A total of 60 autistic kids, ages 7-17, from throughout the southern Nevada region attended the camp. Around 100 volunteers came along to run the camp and attend to the needs of the campers. They all participated in an array of fun activities, games, crafts and more designed especially for the Camp I Am campers.

Natalie Jacobsmeyer, who has coordinated local volunteers to serve at various special needs youth camps for many years, said that Camp I Am is unique among them.

“There is a broad spectrum of different needs when you are talking about autistic kids,” she said. “You never know what you are going to get. So it was nice to go and serve this community of young people who really needed to be served.”
Jacobsmeyer said that the young campers were joyful and appreciative of the situation; and they always supported one another.

“They all felt included in their group and received full acceptance from their peers,” she said. “These kids are not always used to that kind of support. In other settings, like in school, these kids tend to be pushed aside of the mainstream. But here they all felt at home and loved.”

The local group of volunteers went away from the experience feeling uplifted with this opportunity to serve these kids.

“All young people should do that kind of service once in a while; where they are not paid and spend a week or more of their time helping others,” Jacobsmeyer said. “There is just a good feeling that comes from knowing that you have made a real difference.”