I’m looking through the community center classes list and it reminds me of picking out summer camps when I was younger. It makes me realize that there aren’t always options for people who use wheelchairs. While I’m still a fairly new wheelchair user, it would still be nice to have more options for accessible outdoor and indoor activities.

When I was younger some of my favorite things to do during the summer were the day camps at the community center or the local YMCA. There was bowling camp, horseback riding camp, dance camp, and many more, but those are the ones I remember the most. The camps through the YMCA would always have a swim day at the end of the week at the nearby high school. My friends from the neighborhood and I wouldn’t always have camps together, but when we did, we’d choose bowling camp. We’d talk on the school bus about which camp counselors we liked on the way over to the bowling alley. There was always some high school guy who’d be one of our camp counselors. There were also camp songs to sing on the bus as well!

The fliers or the catalogs would come out a bit before school would get out for the summer and I’d look over the schedule and sometimes get to pick two camps per summer. I had been dancing since I was three, so those were always my first choice. The camps were always about a week long and we’d practice dances throughout the week and then have a small recital on the last day. I recently got all of my old dance tapes and other miscellaneous tapes converted to digital files!

Looking at the upcoming classes, there are a lot of community center classes offered but not all of them are things that I could do. There are art classes that look sort of interesting, but it’s nothing compared to the variety of things I was once able to do. A little bit of nostalgia is always fun, especially if it means visiting the old community center where I danced for over ten years.