The Chicagoland Muscular Dystrophy Camp

The Chicagoland Muscular Dystrophy Camps began, according to long-time camper Steve Foltz, in 1960.  They were, and continue to be, run by the Muscular Dystrophy Association, which ran week-long residential summer camps all over the country for children (and, at first and for a while, adults) with muscular dystrophy and related disorders.  Every physically disabled person, referred to as “campers”, was assigned a full-time volunteer helper, or “attendant”, for the week.  There were additional volunteers assigned to activities such as the swimming (pool), boating, sports, arts and crafts, as well as to the administrative and medical staffs.  In the camps I attended, the number of campers ranged from about 50 to 100, with perhaps 1 ½ times more volunteers, all spread out on a large campsite with many cabins for sleeping and many activity buildings. 

The Chicagoland MDA camps began using campsites in the Chicago area, but by the time of my first year in 1969 the site had moved to a camp near Kalamazoo, Michigan, necessitating travel via a fleet of buses loaded up on Michigan Avenue a couple blocks south of Congress Street opposite Grant Park.  It was quite a production to behold.  In 1971 the camp was moved to Camp Ravenswood, a YMCA camp located on Lake Hastings near Lake Villa, Illinois, not too far south of the Wisconsin border and an easier drive from Chicago.  The MD Association continued to use both Ravenswood camps, East and occasionally West, as well as neighboring Camp Hastings, also run by the YMCA, until, sometime, I think, in the early 2000s (I’ll need to verify this).  For a few years starting in 1971, the Chicagoland and Milwaukee –area camps were combined, making the camp even larger still.  Multiple campsites were needed as the number of attendees grew, and for at least a couple of decades there were two week-long camps back-to-back to accommodate all the campers who wished to attend the week-long sessions.  Campers could attend only for one week, but volunteers, when shortages existed (which was usually the case for males), could attend both weekly sessions if they wished. 

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In the 1981 edition of the MDA Camp Hastings newspaper, titled “Hastings Hustler,” camper Steve Foltz summarized the camp chronology, mentioning that it was his twentieth camping season:

1960: the first Chicagoland MDA camp at Camp Shady Oaks near Lockport, Illinois.  There were 30 campers for five days.  There were four female attendants for the 12 kids in my cabin.  My favorite activities were catching grasshoppers and getting good night kisses.

1961:  Same camp.  Sonja Trefz broke the sex barrier as the first female camper.  It was cold.

1962:  At the much-bigger Camp Reinberg, Palatine, Illinois.  We piled into a dump truck to go swimming at a private home.

1963:  Same camp.  I started hearing words my parents never used.  We had individual attendants.

1964:  Same camp.  We went fishing in the forest preserve, catching minnow-sized fish.

1965 & 1966:  Missed camp to take correspondence courses.

1967:  At Camp Lake of the Woods & Camp Greenwoods in Decatur, Michigan.  I did a skit in drag getting a pie in the face.  I never dressed in drag again.

1968:  Same camp.  We build and launched rockets – a great activity.     

1969:  Same camp.  Started my girl-chasing career in earnest.  Expect to start my girl-catching career any day now.

1970:  Last year in Michigan.  Had a ball at the Kalamazoo County Fair.

1971:  Camp moved to Camp Ravenswood East [near Lake Villa, Illinois].  The camp included people from Milwaukee.

1972:  My week was at Camp Hastings.  I started to like nurses a lot.

1973 to 1981:  At Camp Hastings.  Modern camp as we now know it began to take shape.  Such innovations as kissing raids, Western Night, and Friendship Night started.  King Jake rules as our just monarch.  Warm fuzzies debuted.  Camp got better every year.  Over the past ten years there has been a revolution in attitudes.  We who started as victims became patients, campers, and finally human beings.  Stay tuned for my next article around 2001.

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The Muscular Dystrophy Association Chicagoland camp continues through the present, held in recent years at the same camp used by Horizon – Timber Pointe, on Lake Bloomington, just north of Bloomington Illinois, owned and operated by the Easter Seals Central Illinois.     
       

Rick Balsamo
[Updated June 9, 2014]