Camp Craig Allen’s relationship with Ms. Wheelchair Texas Foundation

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advocacy, Camp Craig Allen, Ms. Wheelchair Texas Foundation

Camp Craig Allen founder’s Dawn Cruzan and Amanda Hall met Jackie Bartels,
Ms. Wheelchair Texas 2007, during a summer program on Lake Lewisville. It was instant adoration! Jackie was an excellent representation of the amazing women advocating for the disabled population through Ms. Wheelchair Texas, and Camp Craig Allen knew we needed to be a part of this incredible organization.
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The history of Ms. Wheelchair Texas:

In 1972, an Ohio physician was aware of the talent, capabilities, determination, and courage of people with disabilities. He established Ms. Wheelchair America as a forum for the promotion of the achievements as well as the needs of mobility impaired persons. The non-profit program is staffed and coordinated by volunteers throughout the country dedicated to increasing public awareness so that all its citizens will be able to lead productive and meaningful lives.

Ms. Wheelchair America and Ms. Wheelchair Texas Pageants are competitions designed to select the most accomplished and articulate spokeswoman for the millions of disabled Americans. The selected representative must be able to communicate both the needs and the accomplishments of her constituency to the general public, the business community and the legislature.

As Ms. Wheelchair Texas, her duties are numerous. Each year she has the opportunity to travel, make public appearances, and conduct radio, print, and television interviews in the fulfillment of her responsibilities. These include promoting awareness of the need to eliminate architectural and attitudinal barriers, educating Texans on disability issues, and informing the public of the achievements of people with disabilities across our great state.
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Over the years Camp Craig Allen has committed to sponsoring one deserving candidate to compete in the annual Ms. Wheelchair Texas Gala. The Ms. Wheelchair Texas Foundation’s mission statement so closely aligns with that of Camp Craig Allen’s and we feel honored to be apart of this event and advocating for the good works that these women do year-round.

The Ms. Wheelchair Texas Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, strives to improve the lives of people with disabilities through its mission of advocacy and education.

Camp Craig Allen says Thanks-for-giving!!!

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Camp Craig Allen, campers, community, donators, families, holiday, supporters, Thanks-For-Giving, Thanksgiving, volunteers

Camp Craig Allen would like to thank our supporters, donors, volunteers, families, campers and community for your enormous support and generosity this past year!

“Thanks-for-giving”- we are deeply grateful for your support this past year! Thanks to you, our programs are larger-than-ever-before and still growing. Thanks to YOU, we are meeting the needs of our physically disabled community.

We want to wish each and every one of you a very joyous Thanksgiving and holiday season.  We are excited about our upcoming plans for 2014 and the impact that Camp Craig Allen will make on people with physical disabilities in North Texas.  Please continue to follow us and look for exciting updates!

Make sure to sign up for our newsletter and blog to keep up to date with our latest information!

Thanks again!

We urgently need energetic, able-bodied volunteers with big muscles to help with our upcoming BBQ! – Please spread the word!!

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BBQ, Camp Craig Allen, manpower, muscles, volunteers

Hello All!

We are urgently needing your help to spread the word of our great need of able-bodied volunteers to help with physical labor/manpower to set up, tear down, and other physical labor at our BBQ event. If you’re like me, physical labor is not my forte having muscular dystrophy and all.  So….if you know of anyone that is willing to use their fancy pants AB muscles to help please ask them to contact us!!

• Monday 9/23/13: Manpower to load warehouse supplies onto trucks (in Aubrey, TX) .
• Tuesday 9/24/13: Manpower to set up headquarters at Embassy Suites (in Grapevine, TX).
• Wednesday 9/25/13: Set up banners, tables, and chairs at event site (in Grapevine, TX).
• Thursday 9/26/13: Set up stage, lifting heavy objects, and major logistics set up (in Grapevine, TX).
• Friday 9/27/13: Physical labor of BBQ teams set up (in Grapevine, TX).
• Saturday 9/28/13: Physical labor throughout day and tear down at 9pm (in Grapevine, TX).

WE CANNOT DO THIS EVENT WITHOUT THE GRACIOUS GENEROSITY OF TIME AND ENERGY FROM OUR GREAT VOLUNTEERS.  WE NEED YOU!

If you know anyone that can help PLEASE have them fill out a volunteer form! Under area of help on the form have them list “physical labor or manpower”.

Click Here for BBQ Volunteer Form

 

Thank you!  Please spread the word!!

LakeFest with Metroplex Adaptive Water Sports and Turning Point is September 7th!

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Camp Craig Allen, lakefest, maws, skiing, turning point nation

As a reminder, LakeFest is September 7, 2013 from 9am-3:30pm at Marine Creek Lake in Ft. Worth with Metroplex Adaptive Water Sports (MAWS) and Turning Point!  This is a completely FREE Event with activities including: water skiing, sailing, jet-skiing, hand cycles, air rifles, archery, and wave runners.  Pre-registration is required for water skiing only by contacting Blaine at 214-803-9955 or email blaine@youcanski.org.  Lunch is provided at noon and the Metroplex Mavericks will be putting on a ski show!

This is a fantastic opportunity for those to get outside of their homes, their wheelchairs, and into the water!  They are a great group of folks who share their love onto others.  Great new friendships are formed and it will be an awesome day!!!

See you there!!

Turning Point Nation and Camp Craig Allen – People helping people

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Camp Craig Allen, turning point nation

We love our friends at Turning Point (www.turningpointnation.org), they have lake toys!

A few of us here at the Camp Craig Allen office spent a Saturday on Jason Swanson’s bass fishing boat acting as the “safety boat” while their big pontoon boat took tubers all over the lake. Spending the day with folks of all ages in wheelchairs and watching them experience a fast boat ride or tubing for the first time was a super fun day for all!

Jason from Turning Point also teamed up with Camp Craig Allen earlier this week at a charity golf tournament for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Two Camp Craig Allen campers, Skylar and Nick played golf, entered a putting contest (Skylar came in second place!) and drove the golf carts all over the place all day long. They just strapped up wheelchairs onto the back of golf carts and went! It was a great day with great friends!

Turning Point Nation is just one of the many collaborative partners that Camp Craig Allen works with. Visit their website at www.turningpointnation.org for upcoming activities like fishing and hunting programs for the disabled. Sharing resources and activities with organizations that share our same values of people helping people means a lot to us.

Richard went to camp – A memorial

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Camp Craig Allen

Starting this blog, we hoped to be able to share uplifting stories of hope and the people behind Camp Craig Allen. Unfortunately, some stories aren’t happy ones. And while we contemplated not sharing this story, we decided it is a true part of life. We recently lost a dear, dear friend of ours. Last week, Richard, 26, died. The only thing that helps to ease the pain and heaviness in our hearts is to know that just six weeks ago Richard was able to experience something truly wonderful. Richard went to camp!

We have prayed so hard and worked so tirelessly toward establishing a non-profit camp for adults with disabilities. In May, God answered our prayer with a temporary camp facility. This camp needed campers and this allowed us to immediately start our camp sessions, even if it wasn’t quite barrier-free yet. With lots of hard work and amazing volunteers Camp Craig Allen held its first session on June 24th.

This inaugural weekend was absolutely incredible. Richard and 16 other disable adults (ages 18-36) were able to fish, play wheelchair hockey, go swimming, enjoy camp fires and, most importantly, bonded with other people similar to them. In our first session it became clear that it wasn’t the place that was important, it was the experiences.

It was a weekend of firsts, when Steph and Arion were carried up two flights of stair by four strong fire fighters in order to go down a water slide for the first time in their lives!

It was a weekend of creativity, when Miles rediscovered his drive and passion for creating music.

It was a weekend of laughs, when the little remote control fishing boats wound up on the same frequency, with just one camper controlling two at once. We called this new sport “synchronized fishing.”

It was a weekend of pure love, when in Sunday’s church service there wasn’t a dry eye as we praised God for the ability to come together that weekend, the love of friendships and the future possibilities.

It was six weeks later, on the night of Thursday, Aug 4th, in a peaceful final breath that Richard went home to be with the Lord.

At the memorial service the following week we all came back together and celebrated his life with a profound sense of gratitude that we were able to have that weekend at camp with Richard. There are not words to describe our love for our friend, and all of us will be able to hold on to those wonderful memories for the rest of our lived. Richard will always be remembered.

Welcome!

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Camp Craig Allen, Info

Welcome to the official blog of Camp Craig Allen! Here you’ll find all the behind-the-scenes goodness of Camp Craig Allen along with inspiring stories, info on upcoming camp sessions, interesting resources and anything else we think you’d be interested in. We also want to hear your thoughts and stories, so feel free to chime in with a comment or two.

So much time and effort goes in to running a non-profit like Camp Craig Allen. Because of that, there never seems to be as much time to meet people, make friends and create memories. A blog is a perfect way to stay connected to those we meet and care about. It’s also great for those of you who want to stay up-to-date with what we’re doing.

Don’t stop at the blog, though! Check out our Twitter, Facebook and website (unless, of course, that’s how you found the blog, in which case, thanks “web guy!”). Also, be sure to check out our events calendar on the website, too. We’re involved with activities and events all over the Metroplex in North Texas, so stop by and say “hi.” We’d love to meet some new friends.