An Experience at Stepping Stones Summer Camp Casts a Ripple Effect – Impacting Countless Lives

**Casting a Ripple Effect at Stepping Stones**

For 19 year-old college sophomore Katie Perry, witnessing ‘moments of victory’ with Stepping Stones’ campers was the stone that cast a ripple effect – inspiring her to major in special education.

“I realized after getting to know these incredible campers on a one-on-one basis, watching them grow and growing with them, that this is what I want to do with my life,” Katie explains. “It is such an eye-opening experience to work with individuals with disabilities. It gives you deeper compassion, empathy and respect.”

Growing up in Norwood, Katie first joined Stepping Stones as a volunteer at the age of 13. Upon graduating from Roger Bacon High School, she joined our summer staff team. Today, she returns home from her special education studies at Bowling Green University on the weekends for Saturday Kids Club and will once again be at day camp this summer.

The Ripple Effect

Each year, 140 staff and more than 700 volunteers create memories and make a difference in the lives of 400 individuals at Stepping Stones’ Summer Day Camp. For nine weeks, campers find pathways to independence, express themselves, make friends and have fun in a safe, structured environment.

A summer camp experience at Stepping Stones launches a ripple effect that spreads throughout the community and lays the foundation for future career paths.

Like Katie, many Stepping Stones volunteers and camp staff are inspired to pursue a college education in related fields. It’s a life-changing experience that launches careers in occupational therapy, physical therapy, special education, medicine and nursing.

Bonding with Campers, Individually

At Stepping Stones, Katie was paired with Sebastien. Working together one-on-one, the two developed a bond in Summer Day Camp and Saturday Kids Club that has helped the 12-year-old boy with autism blossom throughout the years.

In watching Katie interact with his son, Sebastien’s father Marvin describes her as “heaven sent”.

“She got to know Sebastien so well,” said Marvin. “She knew that singing his favorite song would ease the transition between activities — something a typical summer camp does not offer.”

“The fact that counselors like Katie do this – lovingly, consciously and competently – speaks volumes about the organization.”

Now Open: Summer Camp Registration

Stepping Stones Summer Camp for Kids with Disabilities

Are you ready for summer camp?

Summer 2017 will be here before we know it and Stepping Stones is ready! Our nine-week summer camp calendar is filled with new and exciting adventures for children, teens and adults with disabilities.

From blasting off to space, to walking on the wild side and traveling through time, each session has a unique theme to deliver new summer adventures – week after week. Stepping Stones offers summer day camp at two Greater Cincinnati locations and our popular summer Overnight Staycations at the beautiful 46-acre Allyn Campus near Batavia, Ohio.

A Summer of Adventures

GO OUTSIDE!
The outdoor, nature-based environment with indoor program spaces allows for exploration in a camp-like atmosphere!

CARE FROM TRAINED STAFF!
Program staff members are predominantly college-age students studying related fields and each receive over 80 hours of direct training on topics such as First Aid/CPR, activity leadership and participant safety. Nurses are onsite during all waking program hours. Lifeguards ensure that water areas are safe. All Staff have background and reference checks. Our trained staff are assisted by volunteers.

BE ACTIVE!
Camp provides structure and fun during the summer months! Keep your body and your mind active while participating in new activities like art, fitness, cooking, boating, swimming, fishing and hiking.

LEARN LIFE SKILLS!
Whether you are away from home for the first time or making a new friend, summer day camp at Stepping Stones allows participants to practice life skills in a safe and nurturing environment. Camp is empowering and promotes independence and self-esteem.

BE YOURSELF!
Discover what you like to do, be silly and try things outside of your comfort zone. Disconnect from technology and be yourself in a judgement-free zone.

Start choosing your summer adventures, today! Dive in by clicking the button below:

Interested in Joining the Stepping Stones’ Summer Staff Team?

We are currently accepting applications for positions in our day and overnight summer programs. To learn more about working at Stepping Stones in Summer 2017, click here.

We Couldn’t Have Done It without You

Thank you to all of the amazing supporters of Stepping Stones’ 51st summer camp season! We are blessed to have such incredible support in serving children, teens and adults with disabilities and could not do it without you.

Anonymous Foundation
Alive in You
Armstrong Chapel
Autism Speaks Baker Camp Scholarships
Balloon Adventures
Breakthrough Cincinnati
Bruce Crippin, photographer
CareSource
Catholic Work Group
Central Church
Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors’ Operation Sunshine
Cincinnati Dreams Come True
Cincinnati Kids 4 Kids
Cincinnati Public Schools
DJ Ed
Ethicon
Ernst & Young
General Electric
Go Cincinnati Crossroads Church
Greater Cincinnati Foundation’s Summertime Kids
Highland Community Church
Hondros College
Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church
Kenwood Baptist Church
Macy’s
Mercy Health Partners
Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation
Private donations for camperships
Mayerson Foundation
Mercy Health Partners
Proctor & Gamble
Project Impact – University of Cincinnati
Resurgent Capital
Rotary Club of Cincinnati
The Frances R. Luther Charitable Trust
Toyota Motor Manufacturing
United Way of Greater Cincinnati
Univar USA
US Bank
Vineyard Community
Volunteers of the Allyn Campus and Given Campus
University of Cincinnati – College of Pharmace
YOT Full Circle Foundation

Find out how you can support Stepping Stones by contacting us on-line or call (513) 831-4660.

A Sweet Goodbye From Day Camp Allyn

Dear Parents, Caregivers, and Loved Ones,

As I write this, I can hardly believe it is the last week of Day Camp already. It sounds cliche, but it really does feel like just yesterday that all the excited participants set foot on camp grounds for their first camp day of Summer 2014.

We have made memories and mud pies, experienced adventure in new friendships and on frog hunts, enjoyed swimming and shared lots of big smiles. I count it an immense privilege that you would share the gifts of your wonderful loved ones with us this summer. We have all grown in ways we could never have imagined through our experience this summer.

Thank you for your commitment to each and every one of our summer camp participants, and for entrusting them to us for part of the summer! We look forward to seeing you next year. Until then, have a safe, happy, and healthy school year!

Abby, Day Camp Supervisor

Life of an Overnight Participant

Have you ever wondered what our participants do when they are here at Camp Allyn for our Overnight Program? Well, your mind can rest at ease after you read over a narrated schedule created through an interview with Dottie and some friends from the Aspen Lodge!

“Okay- the people want to know. When does your day start?”

D- “About 8 or 8:3o- We wake up either on our own or with a staff saying, “GOOD MORNING!” Then we do all of our personal care stuff. Brush our hair, our teeth, our faces…”

“You brush your face?”

D- “Maybe. I just wash mine. But yeah, we shower and all that stuff.”

M- “The staff help people who need it and help keep us on schedule.”

“What happens after you’re dressed and ready to go?”

A- “Breakfast!”

D- “First, we go to the basketball court and talk and say good morning. Then we sing a song or tell jokes until Jelaina says to go inside and eat.”

“What is your favorite breakfast that we have?”

M- “Breakfast Pizza!”

D- “Bacon!”

“Mmm. Bacon! That’s my favorite, too. What happens after breakfast?”

A- “We go to different activities, like fishing, swimming, lodge activities, archery.”

M- “Yeah! Fishing! We love fishing!”

“I remember when you caught that catfish! It was huge!”

M- “It was! You made us throw it back, though!”

“Yeah, I did! We catch and release here. No Fish Fry tonight, pal! Okay- so other than fishing, what else do you like doing at camp?”

A- “I like just seeing the counselors. I help take pictures for the DVD sometimes. Archery is fun when we shoot with Amber.”

D- “I haven’t gone to shoot yet. When did I miss that?”

A- “It was my choice class.”

“Can you tell me what a choice class is?”

D- “We get to pick from a list of things that we want to do like Current Events, Sports…”

M- “Fishing…”

A- “You already said that! We also go to Dance, Yoga, Arts.”

“What is the coolest thing you’ve made in Arts?”

A- “I like when we do the sculpting with clay.”

D- “We get to make big art sometimes. Like on big pieces of wood to put up places around camp.”

A- “Yeah- that’s neat. We get to leave it at camp and be here forever. People walk by and be like, “Hey! I know who made that!”

“That is pretty cool. You are leaving a legacy at camp!”

A- “Yeah! Legacy!”

“What else do you guys do? You eat meals, you go to activities, you fish… Surely there is more!”

D- “DANCES!”

M- “WOO HOO! Dancing!”

“I take it you like Evening Programs?”

A- “Yeah we do! We all come together, like everybody from camp, and we do stuff. We dance, we sing, we go on scavenger hunts.”

M- “Yeah. We did the Paint War this week. We threw paint at each other in water balloons!”

“Sounds messy…”

A, D and M- “Yeah!”

“Alright. And what is the last thing you do during the day?”

D- “Sleep!”

“Anything else you want the people of the world to know about camp?”

A- “We love Dottie!”

D- “Yeah! And we love all the counselors.”

M- “And the fish!”

D- “NO MORE FISH TALK!”

And now, curious minds, you know exactly what we do at camp! We act really goofy, have a lot of fun, make tons of friends and we do go fishing!

Thank you for reading!

The Oh So Loveable-
Dottie Dotson

National Biscuit Day and Invention Convention

Camp wides are always a blast at camp! Here at Camp Allyn, we celebrated two great events last week.

Biscuit Day started last year, when former staff member, Ben Schulman, wore a Biscuit Hat to camp and declared Biscuit Day to be the best holiday in America. He led his group in the first celebration of Biscuit Day at camp and promised to return each year to celebrate. The campers held him to his promise and were delighted to see him return on Friday, sporting his Biscuit Hat to celebrate.

Lauger, a Jellyfish, was interviewed by our own Abby Rodenfels. Here’s what Lauger had to say about Biscuit Day

“It’s Biscuit Day! We make a bunch of stuff- like a castle called a Biscuit Tower!”

And, build a tower they did! Lauger and his Jellyfish group competed in a Tower Building contest against the Dolphins. Using Grape Jelly as their concrete between layers, the groups raced to make the tallest, and stickiest, tower they could! Coming in at two biscuits taller, the Dolphins won the contest. Everyone got to celebrate, though, by eating delicious biscuits!

Over on the Teen side of things, we concluded the Inventor’s Workshop week by having our very own Invention Convention. Pool noodles, pipes, pipe cleaners, tape, cones and so much more were supplied to the convention. Groups were challenged to create the best invention they could using these materials. The groups collaborated and set to work!

The Stingrays, in their typical “chilling” style, created a raft for the pool using pool noodles and pipe cleaners. The Sea Turtles broke up into smaller groups and created several inventions. The object of the activity was, of course fun, but also learning to work together and create new inventions. We learned that so many great ideas come from trying and exploring- just like the potato chip, which was invented by accident!

We had so much fun at our camp-wide activities on Friday! Hope you enjoyed reading about them!

Happy Belated Biscuit Day!

-Dottie Dotson

Celebrating Our Staff!

Hello everyone!

I would like to use this blog post to focus on the amazing staff that have helped make this summer an unforgettable one for so many participants! The 65 staff members at Given put so much fun into this camp, and we always like to make sure they know how appreciated they truly are. Last week we had an ice cream truck visit after camp as a special treat for the staff! Here are a few photos of the fun….

Staff contemplate which ice cream to pick!

Two of our supervisors enjoy their ice cream choices!

It was great to see the staff unwind and take a break from their after-camp paperwork. Our staff put in a lot of work behind the scenes to make camp such a success. Their positive attitudes and infectious energy make Stepping Stones the fun place that it always is in the summer, and we could not do it without them!

This was my choice – a chocolate chip cookie ice-cream sandwich!

Thank you to all of our wonderful staff, and here’s to making the last two weeks of camp something incredibly special! Thanks for reading!

-Bridget Rahill
Coordinator of Rec & Leisure – Given

Meet the Day Camp Allyn Supervisor: Abby R.

Well hello there! Good to have you back and checking in on the Recreation and Leisure Blog! Today we will be officially introducing you to our absolutely amazing and fantastic Day Camp Allyn Supervisor—Abby!

Abby and a participant building a plane for the camp-wide activity for week 5

Abby is responsible for making Day Camp run as smoothly as possible. She supervises staff, coaches staff as a first responder in behavioral interventions, and helps ensure the safety and wellbeing of all of the participants and staff at Day Camp. She also supervises paperwork, parent/caregiver interactions and communication and much, much more!

Abby is also a live-in supervisor; that means every day after day camp she joins in on Overnight Getaway programming and gets to enjoy all of our Overnight participants!

Abby and Jelaina helping out at Overnight Check-In!

Abby comes to us from Dayton! She is currently majoring in Religious Studies and Early Childhood Education at the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH. She hopes to one day use her skills, knowledge and general awesomeness to become a teacher and will begin her student teaching this fall in a 3^rd grade classroom in Wooster. We know she will do great things!

Abby’s Favorite color is sunshine yellow, her favorite candy is York Peppermint Patties or Red Vines and a fun fact about her is that she secretly (or not so secretly anymore) loves the band One Direction.

We love having Abby as part of our recreation team and our participants love her too! Don’t forget to say hi to Abby next time you are over at Camp Allyn!

-Katie
Coordinator of Recreation and Leisure-Allyn

Week 5 at Given!

Hi Guys!

Thanks for checking in again! We had a great week of camp at Day Camp Given! Weather was in the mid-80’s for the whole week so we definitely took advantage of the break in hot temperatures by doing more of our activities outside. We had some fun themes this week as well, the Kids’ groups celebrated “Animal Safari” while the Teens’ celebrated “Land, Sea & Space”! It was amazing to see everyone get into the adventurous spirit!

Kids Camp was full of animal arts & crafts projects, which included: Paper Plate Lady Bugs, Bumble Bee Puppets, Fire Breathing Dragon Cups & Worms in the Dirt! We went on many safari adventures to find animals and were well equipped with our Safari Binoculars and Safari Hats that many groups created! We also ended the week with our Animal Safari Relay Race that was led by our Program Supervisor. As each group visited the camp-wide activity, they spent time placing safari animals into pairs, drawing pictures of their favorite animals and playing hide-and-seek with them & putting a fun animal spin on one of our favorite parachute games! It was a great way to sum up our theme!

Safari Animals popped up all over camp!

Teen Camp spent time on land, on sea and in space this week! Groups did various projects in each of the three areas. Land activities included Elephant Safari, City Skylines & Fractions of the Earth! Sea activities were a definite favorite among many, and these included Drip Drop Sand Castles, an Ocean Game Show and Sea Oobleck! Our Space activities took us far away to different galaxies where we enjoyed thinking up Creatures of the Unknown, built Rocket ships and went on a journey to the Center of the Earth! On Friday each Teen group was assigned a planet (or a moon) that they had to re-create as a group. Groups were only allowed to take three items from our large supply box and had to get creative! The end result was very impressive, and the galaxy is now on display in the Rec team office!

Learning all about the different sections of the Earth at Current Events!

Wednesday, July 9th was also the official halfway point of Summer Camp which the camp staff celebrated with half donuts during our morning meeting. Mid-Summer DVDs also started going out on Friday, I hope you enjoy seeing even more pictures of what our wonderful staff and participants have been up to so far! It is bittersweet to know that we are already halfway through our summer camp season, but we can’t wait to see what the rest has in store. Thanks for reading!

Bridget Rahill
Coordinator of Rec & Leisure – Given

Rainy Days at Summer Camp

Greetings all-

What a summer we have had with our Ohio weather! From the hot days to the rainy days, we are always finding new and creative ways to enjoy the summer weather. At Camp Allyn, we love everything about our rainy days. It adds an unexpected element of fun to our days. Our staff strive to make the most of every drop of rain. From making mud castles and rainy art projects, we ensure our participants are always having the best day ever!

As we all know, sometimes, those rainy days can take a turn for the worse. At Stepping Stones, the leadership team checks the radar regularly. When a potential bad storm is coming our way, the leadership team will alert all of the staff so activities can be kept closer to main buildings. That way, should we need to have everyone move inside, the transition is quicker and easier. We have two levels of emergency codes for weather, one meaning move inside a building and the other meaning move into a storm safe shelter. We also run tornado drills once a month to ensure our staff and participants are always prepared. At Stepping Stones we always strive to make the most safe and cautious decisions to ensure the safety of everyone on our campuses.

We would also like to offer our sympathies and support to those affected by the recent storms at Carroll County’s River Valley Ranch in Maryland. Our hearts go out to the families and community affected. The loss they have suffered serves as a constant reminder to us all to stay alert at all times and keep our participants safe at all costs.

Thank you for reading. Stay safe and have fun!

-Dottie Dotson