Camp Northwood 2024 » Impressive Teens

Summit Camp is in its 5th decade serving special needs boys and girls ages 8 to 23. Our campers need personal as well as interpersonal success, and Summit Camp provides it! Although our children and teens come to us with any number of diagnoses, they all share in their difficulty making and maintaining age appropriate peer relationships despite a seeming capability for such mutual relationships. The child we serve has been the recipient of love and attention within his/her home. Even within the warmth of a family setting, however, the child may have difficulty in coping with the demands placed upon them, or with the quite natural tendency of the family to be overprotective, or with siblings who cannot understand the atypical behaviors- or even the childs seemingly preferential treatment by the parent. This may lead to exhaustion and frustration on both sides, and parents who fear how the child will be successful in any new environment. The family is searching for a community where their child can be who they are without fear of rejection- or, in some cases, expulsion- by those who initially welcomed the child and offered them hope of making a connection and a positive experience outside the safety of their established settings. They wish they could magically share all their insider knowledge of how to best support and react to their childs needs, such that other adults and perhaps even children could see the wonderful things their child has to offer. For children and for parents, Summit is a place they come to know a child that has had such struggles can participate freely, with the knowledge that the staff and the Directorship are signing on for just such an experience. That the counselors working with the campers have come with an intent to support such needs, and that the program is developed to encourage our children to do their best while also having no qualms about supporting them when they are experiencing some of their worsts. That other children there will have similar levels of challenge- and awareness- that can mean real, meaningful friendships and interpersonal exchanges, often for the first time in the childs life. This is why the parents think of us as the Magic on the Hill- and why the campers simply think of us as Summit Camp.