Occupational therapy students recognized for camp involvement

After unsuccessfully looking for a summer camp for her 8-year-old daughter with developmental delays, Sterling Ivey made her way to the Family Y. That meeting eventually resulted in the creation of Camp IVEY, a partnership between Ivey and the Family Y.

That partnership quickly grew to include the Augusta University Occupational Therapy Department.

The July camp, which was hosted at the Family Y’s Camp Lakeside, was dubbed “Camp Awesome” by the participants, and on Sept. 23, Ivey and Danny McConnell, president and CEO of the Family Y of Greater Augusta, presented Dr. Sharon Swift and her occupational therapy students with certificates of recognition.

“We’re pretty good at running camps and having properties we’re in charge of and that kind of thing, but when you start talking about taking care of the medical needs of children, that’s a little bit out of our pay grade,” McConnell said. “From the beginning, Dr. Swift and her students stepped up and started to answer questions for us, and then this camp started to get real.”

Thanks to the assistance of the occupational therapy students, participants at the weeklong camp spent time kayaking, riding horses and trying their hands at karate – activities they likely wouldn’t have been able to experience outside of this unique camp.

“I don’t know who got more out of it, the campers, the counselors, the parents or the community volunteers I had come in,” Ivey said. “It was a win-win for everyone.”