WTRC Summer Camp

It's a campground this week at Barnhart Ranch as dozens West Texas Rehab patients begin their 29th Summer Camp Tuesday. Fishing, turtle chasing and swimming are just some of these activities that are keeping these campers busy.

“It’s about the kids; it’s about bringing them out here to just have a blast,” Suzanne Atkinson Marketing Director of the West Texas Rehab says. On a normal weekday you would find these kids at West Texas Rehab receiving treatments but this week it’s a different kind of therapy. “It just makes them feel like their a regular 8 year old or a regular 10 year old and they don’t have to worry about getting their oxygen treatments we have a nurse on staff the whole time and she’s here for that and they first get to come out here and be a regular kid,” Atkinson says.

A regular kid that’ s able to fish, play duck, duck, goose, and enjoy the outdoors here at the West Texas Rehab summer camp for these 70 rehab patients and their buddies. “A lot of time they don’t have that opportunity they spend a lot of their days inside they spend a lot of their time in therapy and their out here their free and they can run and play and just have a good time, the outdoors is a best place to do it," Atkinson says.

For 29 years the Barnhart family has allowed these campers to take part in enjoying their youth. Heather Helwig a WTRC employee and camp buddy has seen the interest of these campers. “A lot of times they don’t get to see the different things they don’t get to go fishing and actually catch a big fish he caught 3 catfish earlier and picking up and touching the turtles it’s something new and different to them," Helwig describes.

Something new and different that will make lifetime memories for these kids. “We like to bring them out here because it gives them an opportunity to be a ordinary kid for 3 days and not worry about there disabilities about their problems and just have fun,” Helwig says. The camp will last until Thursday afternoon.