At a young age, Cate is not letting anything stop her – not even the inability to see.
“I'm blind with my right eye. So I see with my left eye instead,” the 11-year-old says. “When I was little, I had to get surgery in both eyes.”
At Camp Abilities Nebraska, her and children who are blind do not thinking about their visual impairment.
Instead, they are discovering their other abilities. For one week, the kids swim, kayak, play beep kickball, learn self-defense and other sporting activities. Outlook Nebraska, Inc. and Boys Town National Research Hospital hosts the summer camp.
“The idea is that it will help make children more confident when they get home and feel better about themselves and so we try to look at those kinds of aspects in planning,” says Kristal Platt, vision program coordinator at Boys Town hospital.
At camp, held at Iowa School for the Deaf, there is nothing these kids cannot do.
Two days into the retreat, Cate's counselor has seen it firsthand
“I guess I'm so inspired because she can do anything she wants and she's going to do anything she wants and how hard she's going to work to get there and I know it,” Elizabeth Ternent says. “I'm just really excited to see how she grows and how she develops.
To learn more about Camp Abilities Nebraska, click here.
