Citizens of the Week: Debbie and Eric Sasson
Citizens of the Week: Debbie and Eric Sasson
With Army camp Akeela, a Philly-area native and her husband offer kids who accept trouble connecting with their peers a chance to experience the magic of overnight camp
Jul. 10, 2019
When Debbie Sasson (nee Freidman) left for a Delaware overnight army camp at historic period eight, she had no idea that it would pb to the kind of transformative friendships that would stay with her through adulthood. "It was life-changing to feel a part of a grouping of girls at such an important historic period," she says.
Many summers later, while working equally a counselor at another camp in Cape Cod, Debbie met Eric Sasson, then the assistant director of Windgate Kirkland Camp — who'd ultimately become her husband.
But outset, Debbie worked as a eye schoolhouse counselor, and then pursued a doctorate in clinical psychology. Then, in 2003, she married Eric. And in 2008, when Eric was tapped by CampGroup to launch a new camping ground program, he knew Debbie would be the perfect partner to help him make it as meaningful to potential campers equally her summers had been to her.
At Army camp Akeela, at that place's a strong value placed on embracing quirkiness, rather than shunning it or tamping it down.
The couple'southward approach: Create a summer dwelling for kids who don't always accept the easiest time making friends, and be intentional near helping them. They both thought of the kids they'd worked with over the years who'd had a hard time succeeding in a traditional camp setting; they realized that those children could thrive, if merely they were given the correct resources.
So they got to piece of work, dreaming upwardly and bringing to life Campsite Akeela, a three-and-a-half-week overnight feel in Thetford, VT, where 120 campers from grades three through ten can accept a camp feel in a depression-pressure, nurturing environment that eases social interactions.
Debbie describes the Camp Akeela approach as providing "more scaffolding" for social situations. For example, at Camp Akeela they put an accent on helping their campers effigy out the procedure of making friends, something that comes naturally to others, stride-by-stride: things like wearing a clean shirt, making eye contact, and finding a common involvement are all minor steps to making a friend at camp, and things that Military camp Akeela helps campers navigate. Counselors are hand-picked past Debbie and Eric, and the ratio of counselors-to-campers is more than i developed for every ii campers.
"When anybody is respectful and caring, from the staff, to counselors, to the campers, you tin create a community that prospers," Debbie says. There's a stiff value placed on embracing quirkiness, rather than shunning it or tamping information technology down.
Mealtime is besides an important bonding—and growth—opportunity. The Sassons wanted everyone to be able to eat together, instead of having meal shifts. Many kids at Camp Akeela might ordinarily have problem in large groups with a lot of noise, but the pocket-sized size of the camp allows everyone to come together for meals without it being overwhelming.
"Information technology's one place where they don't have to fit the normal mold and are able to be quirky. That feeling is transformative," says Debbie Sasson.
While many traditional overnight camps tout their inclusivity, that label can be misleading, Debbie says, when camps aren't actually equipped to support campers with dissimilar social needs. "Sometimes camps are doing a disservice by saying they are inclusive, but and then not addressing specific concerns once campers become there," she says. "The neurotypical world is taxing and making [kids] fit into that earth is bluntly not helpful."
Belinda Vogl, who lives in Lower Merion, says her son is nearly to embark on his 3rd Camp Akeela summer. Vogl went to slumber-away camps as a kid and wanted her son to have the same experience, merely she knew he would not have been happy at a traditional camp. One night, while Googling "Asperger's" and "army camp," she plant Army camp Akeela. Later on watching a video on the army camp website she knew this was the place for her son.
She was correct: After his first summer there, Vogl says, "He was a different kid. He had a piffling more than confidence, and was certainly happier, which is the almost amazing thing you tin give your kid."
Since Campsite Akeela'due south inception, the Sassons take expanded their programming to be able to include 11th graders who'd previously grown out of the camp just wanted more than. Now, in add-on to their facility in Vermont, they have a second campus in Appleton, WI, for older campers who are transitioning to college and life later high school. Their summer focuses on learning how to be independent, and developing skills like filling out job applications, doing laundry, cooking, and more than. Tuition for the Vermont military camp is $7,700; the Wisconsin program is $three,800. (Neither fee is staggering relative to other popular overnight camps: At Army camp Wayne For Boys in northeastern Pennsylvania, by comparing, four weeks cost $8,200 and seven weeks toll $12,400.)
"You talk to them and you tin can just tell that their heart and every fiber of their being is focused on these kids and helping them experience comfy with who they are," Vogl says of the Sassons. "Information technology'southward a really difficult thing to figure out, and they practice it — perfectly."
"It'due south 1 place where they don't take to fit the normal mold and are able to exist quirky. That feeling is transformative," says Debbie.
Debbie felt that outset sense of sisterhood at summer camp, and now campers at Camp Akeela likewise derive this same sense of community and growth. Vogl's son certainly feels it. "I know that when he is there, my son knows that people get him," she says.
Photo via Camp Akeela 
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/citizens-of-the-week-debbie-and-eric-sasson/
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