Natural Symphony - Camp Takes Blind Kids into the Wild
22 June 05
Perry Backus of the Missoulian
Michael Gallacher, photographer
From the Missoulian www.missoulian.com
University of Montana Ornithologist Erick Greene, left, helps Marybai Huking, center, record bird songs Tuesday morning at the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge during Camp Eureka!, a four-day natural history camp for visually impaired children.
Strolling along the dirt path leading into the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge, Skyler Kroll stops and holds up his little blue tape recorder.
"What do you hear?" Asks Sean Meister.
"Crickets," is the reply from the 8-year-old. "I'm recording them."
"Hear the bird? It's a warbler of some sort," Meister says.
"Yep. I'm recording that, too," Kroll chirps. "I'm going to record everything."
Just up ahead, seven other young campers also are stopping as they capture the sounds of nature on their own recorders. A few minutes later, they'll gather in the cool shade of a nearby pine to learn which song belongs to which bird from a University of Montana ornithologist. And that is just the beginning of their second day at Camp Eureka! - a four-day-long natural history camp for children with visual impairments. Over the next few days, the 8- to 12-year-olds from all parts of western Montana will learn about raptors, sing some folk music and even discover the joys of mule packing at the Lee Metcalf and Teller Wildlife Refuges.
Camp Eureka! is about rediscovery. And it's not just the youngsters who are learning. Beth Underwood is the driving force behind the natural history camp for the blind. She spent 26 years as an environmental education specialist working both at the National Bison Range and the Lee Metcalf Refuge before a bout with glaucoma changed everything.
"I had to regroup as I was dealing with my own vision problems," she said.
So she learned Braille, earned a teaching certificate and began tutoring a blind preschooler. She didn't forget what she knew best, and it wasn't long before she began to ponder the possibility of developing a summertime nature camp for blind children.
"I finally decided I can do this," she said. "I knew it would be so wonderful for the children."
While she couldn't find another similar program anywhere else in the country to serve as a model, Underwood didn't have a hard time finding enthusiastic sponsors and people willing to volunteer as instructors and mentors.
"Our partners have been terrific," she said.
Those sponsors included the National Federation of the Blind, which sent a representative from Baltimore to take a look at the new camp. Mark Riccobono, director of education for the Federation's Jernigan Institute, liked what he saw Tuesday morning, especially the blind adults volunteering as mentors.
"That's especially important in a state like Montana that's so spread out," he said. "Most of these youngsters probably don't even know another blind person. Having a blind role model is critical."
That was something Underwood considered early on when she started putting together the program. She also knew that the sighted instructors were going to need some help before they sat down and started to interact with the young campers. They received that training this spring.
"We had some instructors who were really good with the outdoors and others who were really good with blindness," she remembers.
"Most had to rethink the way that people access information. Most of us are so visual when we learn, with much of our information coming in through our eyes. You really don't realize that until you take it away. If blind people want some information, they have to find new ways to get it."
That challenge didn't scare anyone away. "They were revitalized," Underwood said. "It gave everyone new energy to think about the new ways they could do things."
In the long run, Underwood said the experience will make everyone involved a better teacher. That's something University of Montana Disabilities Services Department director Jim Marks has seen happen on the Missoula campus.
"That's one of the advantages of working with the disabled," Marks said. "It makes you rethink your methods. In the long run, it makes you a better teacher."
Marks was one of several blind adults who volunteered to spend time with the young campers.
"It's so important for young blind children to have role models who are strong and able people," said Marks. "They need to know early on that blindness just is. It's neither good nor bad - it's not diminished my life. It's just different, but not worse."
And that's a message Marks wants the youngsters to take home. Marks knows what it's like to live in both worlds. He wasn't born blind.
"I had to learn new skills when I lost my vision," he said. "I had to rethink everything. Like most people, I grew up thinking with the judgment that being blind was a very bad thing."
That all changed when he and two other siblings lost their sight. His brother works as an engineer "making big money" back east, and his sister works for the Montana Blind Vendors and has two children.
"I would say that blindness has not diminished our quality of life. Not at all," he said.
It's important that blind youngsters learn early that everything is possible. Programs like Camp Eureka! provide opportunities for them to discover just that.
"Blind kids get a chance to take some risks and experience the great outdoors" Marks said. "It's a wonderful opportunity for them to learn that they're able to do anything they want to. When you're blind, a lot of people think you can't do this or that. It's really about attitude - they can do just about anything they want to. It's important for them to learn that early. My hope is this camp will help reframe blindness for them, while they're also getting to learn a lot of cool stuff," Marks said. "Being comfortable with the outdoors is really important if you want to be a Montanan."
Having different abilities can be helpful in the natural world. Ornithologist Erick Greene of the University of Montana spent a portion of Tuesday morning helping the campers identify and record different bird songs. He let them know he relies a lot more on his ears than on his eyes as a bird researcher.
"This morning I've probably heard more than 40 species of birds. I've seen maybe three," Greene said. "My ears are just tuned in. It's nice for these kids to get out here and realize that they have a lot of strengths that a lot of sighted kids don't have," he said. "This whole experience is tremendous for them."