Camp Conquest
“We found this place four years ago for sale and kept coming back to it. We found land in Middleton, but that door closed, then land was donated in Ripley, but that door closed,” Amanda Price explained, “But all the time this was here, and the door opened; we said ‘this is where God wants us!’” Amanda Price and her husband Mark, along with a host of volunteers and staff, have been operating Camp Conquest for seven years. It came about from a dream that Mark wanted to pursue, a dream to do something for individuals with special needs, chronic illnesses, and disabilities. About ten years ago, Mark started talking to camps that did just that, he drew a plan on a piece of paper, although the first draft fell apart, he still has the second draft. His heart was introduced to kids with special needs at an early age, his parents took in foster kids, including those with disabilities. “Fast forward, there was nothing for these kids to do in the summer, I went to camp once in the summer, when I was 14, but there was nothing out there for them.” Mark explained, “I remember thinking, how neat would it be for these kids to have something. I drafted something and stuck it in a drawer. Amanda found it and asked me what it was, then said, ‘why don’t you do something about it instead of sticking it in a drawer?’” Mark and Amanda have been putting this dream together ever since. For the last seven years, they have been renting a campground for two weeks out of the year and have a long waiting list of campers who would like to take part in their wonderful summer program.
The land they just bought for Camp Conquest belonged to a Methodist Church located in Memphis who was no longer interested in coming out to Millington. Mark and Amanda have great plans for it! They have campers that drive over six hours away to come. Within a three-hour-drive, the number of the special needs population is staggering. Just think, all of those kids need this program. Right now, they serve less than .1% of that population. “There is such a great need for this,” Amanda and Mark both told us.
“Kids come out for a week, they stay overnight [at the current campground cabins]. We have canoeing, archery, horseback riding, zipline, a rock climbing wall, and a giant rope swing. The kids are in a harness, their cabin group of 12 people pulls them up into the air, 30 feet into the air, but the individual has to pull the release cord.” Mark began explaining the camp experience, “Sometimes it takes them 15-20 minutes until they have enough courage to pull the cord, but they eventually do. Just like when they are sitting on the zipline, they have to push off, if they are able, if they can’t, then they have to tell us when they are ready to go, saying ‘OK, now I’m ready!” At the last camp, we had a 90 foot slide into the lake. One camper, in particular, was very reluctant to go down it, but after she found the courage to do that, she began to do other things and then she went home. She learned to brush her own hair with very limited use of her hands which was a huge thing for her, and she learned to speak Spanish.” He began telling us more about the breakthroughs that the campers had after doing camp activities. These activities made them have to reach inside to find their courage. These activities built their confidence so they can say, ‘I can do this!’
To date, they have had two weeks of camp every year. The first week they serve kids 6 to 17 years of age. In the second week, they serve adults 18 to 65, They have disabilities that range from mild autism and mild cerebral palsy all the way up to severe autism, severe cerebral palsy, Spina Bifida, Down syndrome, developmental and intellectual disabilities, and some people that are undiagnosed physically and/or mentally disabled. They have had a waiting list over 70 kids long to get into the camp. By having their own land and facilities, they can shorten or eliminate the waiting list. “Our vision is to have it all summer long so that we can designate weeks for different disabilities. There are organizations that have already reached out to us to have their own weeks for camping, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Shepherds Haven, and Vanderbilt Hospital’s tracheotomy unit for kids who have ventilation equipment. We are navigating through what that will look like for them.” Amanda Price continued, “to give each of those entities a week of camp instead of every week being Camp Conquest, to give organizations who are serving people with special needs,chronic illnesses, and disabilities a chance to use this facility because it will be appropriate regardless of what the disability is.”
“Long term, we will eventually have two spring breaks because we have campers that come from Ohio, Louisiana, Texas, and so many different parts of the country have different spring breaks, we will have two spring breaks, two fall breaks, nine weeks of summer camp and a Christmas break.” Mark continued, “That leaves 35 weeks out of the year that we could open this up to disabled Veterans and their families, Special Olympic and Paralympic training because the closest facility is in Birmingham, Alabama. We are exploring, once we build a pool, how much bigger will it need to be to be able to do this. Once everything is built to the ADA standards, the paths will allow two wheelchairs to pass each other comfortably, it will be built to spec for our campers, so why not open it up to allow everyone to come?” Price continued to expand the plans, “between now and June first, we need a large cabin with 50 aditional beds and our pool. We also plan on doing an 800 foot long zipline that will go across our lake.”
There are five phases that the camp is planned to go through by 2025. All the paths will be paved, a large gymnasium will be built, the large cabin and small cabins, a lazy river with a splash pad, and there will be a horse barn with a riding arena. The lake will also be dredged, enlarged, and aerated.
Right now, they have 30 beds—10 bedrooms with three twin beds—with a small change to the rooms, it will be possible to put bunk beds and an additional twin bed to allow each camper to have their own counselor and a cabin leader in each room. There are about 5 nurses that are there as well, no medicine is allowed in the cabins, so the nurses divide the cabins between them. Unlike most camps, all of the volunteers including the medical providers pay to be there. Each pays $95 per week when volunteering to take care of their expenses. “You get a different group of people, God has truly blessed us in so many ways.” Mark finished. There is also a waiting list for volunteers.
Cabin moms are 35 and older, they are here for support. “We do have campers that are deaf, and we have people that do sign language. Counselors are 15-35 years old, explorers are 13-14 and they help the counselors, and they become the future counselors” Amanda added. “We have a 1-1 ratio of camper to counselor unless their disabilities are more profound, then we have additional help staff. When you have a camper in a wheelchair, it takes two people to do a wheelchair transfer. And these are teenagers that are doing this work, there are amazing kids that are volunteering to do this. They are doing things that are very hard and they’re doing it with joy.” Mark gave us an example, “The head chef at our previous camp, after we had all left to go take naps, came up to us and said ‘I just had an amazing moment.’ Two of your counselors came over and said, one of our campers had a poo party in your restroom and got it on the walls. We need something to clean it up with, do you mind? They said it with a smile, two 15 year-olds, with a smile, and they were going to clean up. I don’t know where you find these kids, but they are amazing. So that’s an example of our kids who are counselors.”
“Once we get the large cabin built, this building [main building] will have a different use. Inside will be an arts and crafts room, and a sensory room because we have so many kids with autism. It’s easy to get overstimulated, and this room will give them a place to go and chill out for a little while, and relax. Price continued, “Amanda will have her medical team inside as well. Each week of camp, we will have 4-5 medical providers that are there day and night. In the past, we have taken one of the cabins for that, but now we will have this which will be so much better to have our own medical station.”
The schedule: Kids get up at 7:30, camp songs are at 8:00, then do a devotional and breakfast which is at 8:30, At 9:15 they go back to their cabin and clean up, because they have an award each day for whoever has the cleanest cabin. This is announced at lunch and that cabin gets a special treat. Activities start at 10, alternating between the activities, doing each activity for an hour, then they go to lunch for an hour, After lunch, they take an hour and fifteen-minute nap, just to recharge, which gives the counselors a chance to recharge as well—find a quiet place to go read or have their own quiet time. After their nap, they have snow cones and then go straight into the pool. Getting ready for dinner takes a little bit. Each night dinner involves a themed party, tacky prom, family feud, superhero, star wars, you name it, each summer has had different theme nights. “They really enjoy this, it gives them something to look forward to.” Amanda explained.
Currently, they are utilizing a company to provide a couple of horses for the kids to ride. They would love to find “someone or a group that wants to provide a therapeutic riding program or hippotherapy that needs a place to set up shop, we have the facility, we just need your horses for a couple of hours in the morning.” Mark continued, “if they wanted to provide programming for people in the area in the afternoon, that’s great!” Amanda added, “And the35- acres that we are currently using is only half of the acreage that we own here, we haven’t even figured out what we want to do with the rest of this yet.” The non-profit that the couple created owns another 35-40 acres that could be utilized in addition to their planned development.
“It’s a lot of fun when, so often, these children or adults are told ‘well you can’t do this or don’t do this’ and here we give them a chance to say ‘I did it.’” Mark continued, “I can go into a sporting goods store and get a harness and send many of us and go down a zipline, but you can’t do that withall of our kids, many of them have low muscle tone, so it pinches their back, so we had to have a special chair made so that when we put our kids into it, it’s safe and secure and it’s comfortable.”
Amanda added, “Oh my gosh, these kids will literally wait in line an hour to go,” down the zip line, “ they love the opportunity, and they are screaming joyfully the whole way down it. They really love it! We can only let them go [through the line] twice because it takes forever to get them into the harness. We have five staff members that each check and recheck every connection for comfort and safety before theygo down the zipline. The way we have to do the zipline now is really hard, because we have been renting a campground. We have someone standing on a ledge pulling them up once they are in the harness because they start where most people would stop on the zipline. They can’t pull themselves up, so we do it for them. We let them go as many times as they want at that point until they are ready to stop. It’s cool when we have closing ceremonies and ask the parents, how many of you have been ziplining, and a few will raise their hands; then we ask the kids how many and every hand will raise. They think it’s so cool that they do something that their parents might not have done. They get a big kick out of doing something that someone else can’t. That’s the purpose of this camp, to let them know not to be held back by their disabilities, to give them a sense of empowerment. You can do anything, we may have to tweak something to make it happen, but you can do it.”
The couple is doing that with the property that is a very rough diamond that they bought to give to these ‘kids’ of all ages. They are tweaking it and telling it ‘you can become anything you want to be’ as they move the camp to a very remarkable place. “It’s going to sparkle someday!” Amanda added.
What impressed me most, as we were interviewing, was the final few minutes, as we talked. Mark and Amanda started this to give to the kids with special needs, chronic illnesses, and disabilities, but it has taken on a whole new life as well. The parents drop off their child with special needs and spend a week with their other children. They take a vacation to Disney, where a child with autism might be miserable with all the sensory overload. It gives the other children a chance to go on vacation with their parents. That is a gift in itself, and anyone who has ever been a caregiver can appreciate that, the amount of work, even though it is lovingly given… to have a minute to call your own is a true gift. The counselors also are coming into this expecting to give, and are getting so much in return. “It’s mind-blowing how many college students have changed their majors to Special Ed after these young people come and give their time here.” Amanda added, “they come not having any expectations, and look what they are doing. We had no idea of the impact of this one little week.” Mark added, “We were focused on the camps, but the impact, only God could make this the ministry and blessing that it is… campers, volunteer, parents…”
For more information: Campconquest.com or look at their facebook page to get an idea of what daily life at camp is!