About This Site:

About This Site: My name is Rick Balsamo. For many years I was involved as a volunteer with the camping and other social activities of the Chicagoland Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), and then with those same type of activities with the organization that became the Association of Horizon, a non-profit providing social activities for the disabled that was started by MDA volunteers. This site is a record of my experiences in pictures and words. Please read the background and informational posts about this site and the use of the pictures on it, under the "General" label linked to over on the right side, and consider commenting whenever you can, and most importantly, consider a donation to the Association of Horizon (link).

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Up, Up, and Away with Our Beautiful Balloons -- Hopefully

For many years at the end of a week at Muscular Dystrophy Camp in northern Illinois we all gathered in the open, addressed postcards to ourselves, attached them to helium-filled balloons, and released them into the air.  We hoped a stranger somewhere would find each one, note where it landed, and mail it to us.  We would wonder – Would mine fly south to Arlington Heights or Oak Lawn?  Or north to Oconomowoc, Manitowoc, or even Tahquamenon Falls?  Maybe west to Genoa or Roscoe, or east across the lake to Saugatuck.  Or would it just get stuck in the trees all around us a few feet away, as many did year after year, the prospect of which Danny Martin would parody in his hilarious lunchtime send-ups of the old WGN Wally Phillips daytime (often boring) talk show.


One such day in 1982 I brought my camera, and here’s what it saw:
Irene Roach & Danny Martin
Two of the four Bolden Brothers: Eric and Russ (without Ceodes [Butch] and Stan)
Cherly Vanerio & Carol Tsao
(Front:) John Mayer & Eric Cook
Sitting L to R:  Mike Jarrett, probably Debbie Goodman, Sandy Kardaras, & Alice Dickerson.
Standing L to R:  Loretta Martin, probably Catherine Schuler, Kerry Barnett (from Australia), unidentified, Inhe Choi, and Elizabeth Schwartz      
Bob Schumacker & Warren Robinson
Chris Mathews (front) and Maureen Martin, with Kathy Bavaro in the background
Jimmy Cofer
Mae Hall & Barb Sesley sitting; behind them probably Sandra Twillie & Lisa Strubin.
Roger Gordon & Monica Murphy
Karen Black
Mary Frandsen
Danny Martin & John "The Golden Greek" Lianos

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Toga Toga -- Camp Hastings 1985, Not Rome

Claire Martin, Johnny Angelico, Joe Browne, & Alvin James
Linda Feeley & Friend
Joan Petitgoue & Bridget Carey
? Paula DeStefano & Karen Binkley
Timmy Sullivan in Period Garb
Ron Balsamo & Jeff Sader
Patty Riley
Catherine "Boo" Schuler & ? Cathy Amedeo 


? Carrie Gill & Ingrid Bouwman
Barb Kudron & ? Cheryl Rosenwinkel
Doug Batesky & Mike Angelico
Jack Magic & Rick Westley

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Pool Party -- Camp Hastings 1985

Linda Nickele, Linda Feeley, & Doug Batesky
Over the many years at camp I took few photographs at the pool.  My 35mm Canon SLR camera was bulky and heavy compared to those of today, and expensive to replace should it inadvertently fall into the water.  But in 1985 I carried it up the big hill at Camp Hastings, to the large pool with a commanding view of the grounds and the lake beyond.

Rick Balsamo 


PT Healy, Roger Gordon, & Bob Medrala
John Walsh & Alvin James
Mike & Johnny Angelico
Nicky Biango & ? Sharon Woodhouse
Juan Martinez & Rosemary Plescia




Cheryl Malszewski & Denny Harris
Gilda Amorosa, with Rich Wesley in the background
Freddy Levin & Helen Zaricor
Sharon Feeley
Claire Martin
Janet Pugliese & Jay Cohen
Tim Beard & Jon Franke
? John Bareiss & Mike Trimpe