Friday was the last full day of activities for the campers at Camp Yorktown Bay on Lake Ouachita. Everyone was trying to get in the activities they had not tried yet, or going back for one more time for their favorites, such as the zip lining, archery, skiing and and canoe racing.
Rita DeNaro of Quincy, Mass., who has been coming to Camp Yorktown for several years, was visiting the rock-climbing wall just outside the dining hall. She said she makes it up the wall at least once every year, just to make sure she can still do it.
With her body and head pressed to the wall, she felt around for the next rock step to pull herself up, and with some help from her spotter down below, she found the next step with her bare feet and pushed herself to the top. After tapping the top of the tall wooden wall, DeNaro was brought down by the rope harness she wears.
“That’s not bad for someone 57 years old,” she announced to anyone who could hear her, after she touched the ground.
The fact that she has seriously impaired vision was not mentioned and would not have mattered to her fellow campers. All of them can barely see or are totally blind. Last week, the camp off Strawberry Road in west Garland County hosted the Arkansas Blind Camp, one of 11 National Blind Camps held in 10 states during the summer
“We don’t want anyone to hear, ‘You can’t do that,’ during this week of camp,” said Norine Westerbeck, the Arkansas representative for Christian Record Services for the Blind and the coordinator of the Arkansas Blind Camp. “We have the same activities that you will find at any camp.”
The Friday activities included riding a zip line, archery, horseback riding, boating, tubing and canoe races, Westerbeck said.
“It is a two-person canoe, and the blind person is in the back,” she said. “The sighted person in the front tells the other canoeist how to paddle, and they race out to that island.”
Westerbeck pointed to a small island in the lake around 100 yards from the swimming area.
“We usually start out slower to begin with for the campers,” said Kiefer Dooley of Fayetteville, who has been a counselor at the camp for three years and is one of the boat drivers on the lake. “Most of the campers end up doing everything a regular camper does.”
Take DeNaro, for example — she needed some directions to the next step in the rock wall only if she could not find it herself by feel. Her spotter said DeNaro didn’t need much help to scale the 22-foot wall in around five minutes.
“We have railed steps for the blind campers to get on the horses, and we have a lead for each horse, but otherwise, the riding is about the same as with campers who can see,” said Sunni Lovell of De Queen, one of the staff members at the horse barn, where 12 riding horses are kept at Camp Yorktown.
“We start out in the arena, and then we have trail rides,” said Lovell, 17. “I love working with all the campers. They all enjoy riding.”
Westerbeck said campers went fishing July 11 with the help of the Hot Springs Village Anglers, a group of serious fishermen who volunteer their time and boats to be with the campers.
“We had nine boats out on the lake, and one of our campers caught 18 fish,” Westerbeck said.
Volunteers from Hot Springs Village help with several of the camp’s activities.
“The Village Woodworkers are helping the campers build a cedar birdhouse for the camp,” Westerbeck said
Don Draper, a Village resident, drives a golf cart for the campers during their week at Camp Yorktown.
“I am here for those who have more difficultly moving around the camp,” he said. “We can get from place to place in less than 15 minutes.”
Camp Yorktown has a lot of lakefront ground and more than 80 acres of woods and camp facilities. Westerbeck said the camp was first built as a retreat for the Navy League. The flagpole on the campus was taken from the USS Yorktown.
Westbook said she has been working with the Arkansas Blind Camp for 15 years. Christian Record Services for the Blind started in 1899 with a Braille magazine and now produces audio books and other Christian literature for the seeing impaired, and created the first camp for the blind in 1967. The organization and the camps are sponsored by the Arkansas-Louisiana Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
The camp is free for blind and legally blind people, and the denomination’s churches across North America nominate people to attend the camp.
Clarence “Turkey” Prestianni, 57, of Delta City, Miss., was nominated by his church to attend the camp.
“I live in the country by myself, and I guess they thought I need to get out and be around people,” he said.
Prestianni is one of the more adventurous members of the camp. The day before he went tubing on the lake, he was water skiing at full speed.
He was skiing about 30 mph, and he took a spill and lost his eye patch,” said Dooley, who was driving the boat. “We helped him pop his prosthetic eye out so he didn’t lose it in the lake.”
Prestianni, whose remaining eye is impaired, still enjoys the thrills found in the outdoors.
“There is a sign we use for the driver,” he said. “Thumbs up is for faster, and thumbs down is for slower. My thumb is always up.”
He was part of a group of five campers who went out with Dooley and two camp counselors to ride a platform that is actually a large inner tube covered with canvas and outfitted with handholds.
One of the first riders was Maranda Young, 17, a veteran of four Blind Camps. She was a little wary of riding the tube, but once she was on the water, she said it was fun.
“I loved tubing,” she said while drying off after she was helped back onto the boat. “I liked the bumps and the turning. When it’s fast, it lifts you up on one side, and you feel like you are flying.”
The last of the group to take to the water was Prestianni. Dooley knew what Turkey wanted and blasted across the lake at more than 30 mph. Prestianni held on tight as the tube took to the air when it would slice over the wake of the boat. Twists and turns caused the tube to sway from one side of the boat to the other, barely skimming the surface.
When the ride was over, Prestianni yelled, “Oh boy, that was awesome.”
“Flying Turkey,” said fellow camper Jim Sherman of Tyler, Texas, who had ridden the tube before Prestianni.
Not all the campers spend their time looking for thrills. Under the shade outside the dining hall, Ann McKee of Little Rock was enjoying talking with her friends.
“We’re just chilling out at the swings,” she said.
Westerbeck said many of the campers live in small towns and rural areas, where they may not even know other blind or visually impaired people their age.
“The best fun they have is being together with people like themselves,” Westerbeck said. “They are always together, talking and laughing.”
To learn more about the Arkansas Blind Camp at Yorktown Bay, near Mountain Pine, call Norine Westerbeck at (870) 926-9325.
Staff writer Wayne Bryan can be reached at (501) 244-4460 or at wbryan@arkansasonline.com.