Tai’s Camp Story

Imagine being told “no” your whole life. Because you use a walker, you can’t join your peers playing outside, participate in a basketball game, or visit the destination of your dreams due to a lack of accessibility. Then picture the joy of attending Easter Seals’ fully accessible summer camps.

This past summer, sixteen-year-old Tai had the opportunity to return to Easter Seals Camp Merrywood for the third time. Tai, who was born a twin, was diagnosed with a form of brain stem glioma at just one and a half years old. “He was given about nine months to live,” Farrah, Tai’s mom, explains. Tai’s condition is complicated. Although he has far exceeded his original life expectancy, he lives with an inoperable tumour in the core of his brain that affects him both cognitively and physically. He wears hearing aids and glasses and has stability issues. Tai most often relies on his walker for mobility, but sometimes he will use a wheelchair for long distances. All of this can make it difficult for Tai to participate in the same activities as other kids his age.

“Having an experience like Easter Seals camp, where he’s around other people his age, being outside… money can’t buy that,” Farrah expresses. When he’s at home, Tai tends to spend a lot of time on his phone. But when he’s at Camp Merrywood, you’re more likely to find Tai taking up a bow and arrow to practice his archery or sailing out in the middle of Big Rideau Lake. “It’s so needed for these kids. Sometimes camp is their only opportunity to get outside and play sports or to be involved in group activities,” continues Farrah. “As a mom, to know he has the opportunity to participate, it’s a beautiful thing.”

Besides the huge range of adapted activities Tai gets to participate in, there is another aspect that keeps bringing Tai back to Camp Merrywood each summer: the counsellors. “He always makes really good relationships with the counsellors,” Farrah explains. “We really love that a lot of the counsellors also have special needs. It gives the kids a mentor they otherwise might not have. It’s so important for them to see that, it opens up a whole new world for them.”

Knowing your child is in good hands is paramount for any parent. Farrah was nervous the first year she sent Tai away to Camp Merrywood. “I was crying when he left,” she explains. But after seeing how sad he was to leave camp after his first session, she knew she had made the right decision. “After that first year, I feel so completely confident,” Farrah adds. “Camp is a reset for Tai. When he gets home, he’s off his phone more and for that snippet of time, he is changed.”

We are incredibly grateful to the Easter Seals donors who have made such transformative moments possible for Tai and the hundreds of other kids who attend Easter Seals campers each summer. “Going somewhere like Easter Seals camp, where everything is literally made for them… I just wish the whole world could be like that. That’s how it should be,” Farrah shares. With your continued support, we can continue to breakdown down barriers, empowering children, youth, and young adults with physical disabilities to discover what they are truly capable of when limitations are removed.