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Kingdom Kampers

The summer my family arrived at the Farm, Robin Rothaar and Debbie Ankney (now Debbie McKee) began their first session of Kingdom Kampers. Robin and Debbie were long-time friends who taught physically handicapped children in the Mansfield City Schools. Kids who must use wheelchairs or crutches don't get to go to ordinary summer camps, and the two women wanted to give them the camping experience.

Inside their non-cooperating bodies, these are still kids. That's difficult for outsiders to see, especially if the affliction interferes with their ability to communicate (cerebral palsy, for example), but the aim was to give them a dose of good outdoor camping fun just like other kids could have. They played games, did arts and crafts projects, went swimming, and had water balloon fights.

Of course, all this activity needs a lot of volunteers to help with such things as pushing wheelchairs, and that is how my family got involved. Almost as soon as we were unpacked from the move, my wife and three kids were part of Kingdom Kampers, and I got recruited to do such things as driving vans and pushing wheelchairs over rocky ground.

The program went on for several years, and the kids were housed in the Lodge and in homes of volunteers. So far as I know, the campers were never charged for the week.

One of the unexpected effects of the camping experience was that my wife became interested in handicapped kids and ended up as an aide at Robin and Debbie's school. Later my wife returned to college to finish her qualifications and became a teacher at the same school.

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  1. Rebecca AllenMay 29, 2021 at 12:10 PM

    Our participation was a huge impact on my life; growing up participating in an environment like this where kids who had physical differences were so familiar was quite different than what I would’ve experienced through school or other activities. These were just kids with some medical stuff, nothing to be nervous about, people are different in a lot of ways

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