Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp Returns Live for Week of Fun

The 2022 Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp returns in person at the UCSB Recreation Center after a two-year pause to welcome dozens of enthusiastic campers, on July 11-15. 

The annual camp provides sports and recreation skills development for children, youth, and young adults between the ages of 6 to 21 years old who can use a wheelchair to participate in activities. A new young adult group has recently been added for athletes up to 21 years old. 

Funding from the Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation enables all campers to attend the camp for the entire week at no cost. 

Camp activities range from beginner to advanced wheelchair sports and recreation activities, including rugby, basketball, tennis, hand cycling, swimming, SCUBA diving, racquetball, power soccer, climbing wall, ropes course, dodgeball, obstacle course, baseball, dance and pickle ball.

Counselors and instructors are wheelchair users themselves, so they become natural mentors to the campers on how to stay healthy and active while living with a disability.

The Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp was founded in 1986 and is the only camp of its kind on the Central Coast. It attracts campers from the tri-counties and beyond, including Los Angeles and Bakersfield, and even Oregon. Transportation for campers is provided free of charge from Oxnard, Santa Maria, Lompoc, Carpinteria and Santa Barbara.

Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital and Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation sponsor the camp with support from individuals, organizations, and businesses in the community. The camp is led by director Rene Van Hoorn, Recreation Therapist at Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital.

For more information, visit www.cottagehealth.org/wheelchaircamp.

About Cottage Health – cottagehealth.org

The not-for-profit Cottage Health is the leader in providing advanced medical care to the Central Coast region. Specialties include the Cottage Children’s Medical Center, Level 1 Trauma Center, Neuroscience Institute, Heart & Vascular Center, Center for Orthopedics, and Rehabilitation Hospital. The Cottage Health medical staff is comprised of more than 700 physicians, many with subspecialties typically found only at university medical centers. Last year, the Cottage Health hospitals in Goleta, Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez Valley provided inpatient care for 21,000 people, treated 80,000 patients through their 24-hour emergency departments and helped deliver 2,100 newborns.