Wheelchair dependent youth experience sports summer camp in the Brazos Valley

BURTON, Texas (KBTX) – Summer is a popular time for students to go to camp, and over in Burton kids from across Texas are taking part at Camp For All.

These campers utilize a wheel chair and are building confidence and skills along with showcasing their abilities.

Underneath the pavilion, with Wheeled Warriors or Rolling Renegades worn proudly across their chests, campers are embracing camp activities.

Camp Xtreme is part of the TIRR Foundation which is a nonprofit that helps wheelchair dependent children and young adults.

“This our Xtreme Camp so all our kiddos are real independent,” Genny Gomez the Director of Camp Xtreme said.

Organizers strive to provide a camp experience without boundaries and they said a wheelchair is never a barrier to participating.

“This is often time the first time for campers to meet another kid with Spina bifida and play sports with other kids or adults who are in wheelchairs,” Allen McBride the Director of Camp For All said. “It makes them feel like I’m not defined by this disability.”

With the Paris Paralympic games happening at the end of August, athletes were going through their own Paralympic Trials including the wheelchair sprint, wheelchair basketball and archery.

“We have a few counselors who are being offered professional wheelchair basketball opportunities, Gomez said. “We have former counselors and campers who are competing in the Paralympics this year, so we are just so blessed to be able to be part of their life.”

One of the campers at Camp Xtreme is Addison Omar and this is her third time going.

“I’m previously coming from a power chair and so me being able to have all these opportunities for sports I love it,” Addison Omar of Rosenberg said.

Omar said she keeps coming back to camp because of the friends she makes and the activities she gets to partake in.

“I feel like I have a purpose here,” Omar said. “It’s perfect to come out here and see people who do the same things as you.”

Campers also did a mile race where they tried to beat their time from past years, or they crossed the finish line for the very first time like Omar.

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