Camp Treasure Chest survives budget cuts, helps disabled campers thrive

Kirsten Cosby and her peers at Camp Treasure Chest carefully studied their nutrition-themed bingo cards as a volunteer announced the next square: Watermelon.

"Call it, Kirsty!" counselors at the summer camp for disabled children shouted in encouragement when they realized the 16-year-old girl won the game.

Pumping her fists in the air, Kirsten began to dance as her fellow campers cheered her on.

Organizers feared last winter that the camp might not survive state budget cuts, but Camp Treasure Chest is in full swing in Beaufort County. The six-week camp for children with mental and other disabilities began serving 15 students ages 6 to 21 at Robert Smalls Middle School last month.

In previous years, a state grant has covered nearly all of the camp's costs, typically between $18,000 and $20,000, camp director Erin Womack said. This year, state funding was reduced to about $7,000.

However, community organizations and private donors raised enough money to keep Camp Treasure Chest going.

Women in Philanthropy gave it $4,500, and the ABLE foundation raised about $5,000 by selling Christmas ornaments and hosting a golf tournament, Womack said. Organizers nonetheless had to raise the students' entry fee this year from $37.50 to $50.

Volunteers led workshops for the campers, and several local restaurants donated lunches.

"The support of Beaufort County has been phenomenal," Womack said. "We hope and pray that next year is just as successful."

Loretta Fleming, a nutrition educator assistant with Clemson Extension, donates time to the camp once a week to teach students about healthy eating and give basic cooking lessons. She's helped them make banana smoothies and vegetable stir-fry.

"It's important for these children to know why they eat the foods they eat," she said. "When they have a hand in making something, they are more willing to eat it."

Because children with disabilities often require high levels of care, many other summer camps can't meet their needs, Womack said. That's why she thinks it's important the community continue to support Camp Treasure Chest.

"This is it for some of them," she said. "For some of these kids, they wouldn't get any experiences like these anywhere else."

Today, the campers will travel to the North Charleston and American LaFrance Fire Museum for a field trip. Other trips planned this month include a dolphin cruise, a Beaufort carriage ride, swimming and bowling.