Brockport, NY --- This week more than 50 kids from around the New York State are in Brockport learning to do things many never thought possible. All of them are blind but that’s not getting in the way of the fun they're having at summer camp; riding bikes, swimming, or even playing baseball.
All of this is made possible through Camp Abilities; now entering its 15th year at SUNY Brockport. It's a sports camp for the visually impaired and through lessons like playing “Beep Baseball” the campers learn that being blind doesn't prevent you from playing ball.
"Actually I tried it once with my friends, it was kind of hard but now I really get the concept and it’s really easy for me now," Kylan Allington, 10, of Elmira said. As he took to the Beep Baseball field it was obvious the age-old advice of “see the ball, hit the ball” is now appropriately replaced with “hear the ball, hit the ball.”
"I think it's a really good sport," Allington said.
The bases beep too, and fielding the beeping ball almost seems easy compared to hitting it.
"When he (the pitcher) says Ready, Pitch - I just follow it and when I hear it go up in the air I just swing right when it's up in the air," Allington said with the confidence of a seasoned veteran.
The old pros on the field with these campers are in fact members of the Long Island Bombers, a Beep Baseball team with a visually impaired roster.
"Beep Baseball is baseball that you can hear," Braulio Thorne, a player on the Bombers said rather matter-of-factly as he coached the youngsters.
"For me and my teammates its more (about) educating the children,” Thorne said. “Showing them that they can do anything they want to do with a little help here and there, and modified, but they still can do it."
Through this week, and through sports such as Beep Baseball, the campers at Camp Abilities are learning a lesson that is rarely taught in a school classroom; confidence.
"If a child is welcomed into physical education and all the sports are accessible than that's how they're going to grow up,” Lauren Lieberman, PhD, the camp’s founder said. “Thinking oh yeah, I can do anything."
Counselors at Camp Abilities are primarily graduate or undergraduate students pursuing physical or special education degrees. Through this experience they learn how to teach sports to those with visual impairments.
