MANNING River Lions hosted a special camp for a group of the region’s families and their children on the weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The annual Camp Memories was held at Taree and was a chance for families with disadvantaged children to relax and enjoy various activities including art, music, craft, science, archery, a jumping castle, swimming and camel rides.
Manning River Lions members together with community volunteers helped to cater for the 65 children and 30 families.
Camp Memories co-ordinator Peter Baker said it was a specialist camp which filled a need for not only Manning Valley families, but visiting ones as well.
“There are a lot of camps for special needs kids, but not ones which incorporate their family and siblings like ours,” he said.
“Special needs kids can’t handle being away from their family.
“We had two families from Sydney and other families from the Central Coast, Newcastle and Port Macquarie who came specially for the camp.”
Peter said there was a great level of understanding amongst many in the camp.
“The beauty of it is if one child is off in the air a bit, the parents understand what is happening,” he said.
Peter said the camp had received glowing comments from parents since its inception in Taree in 2001.
“A couple of years ago one father said to me ‘This is great, this is the only time off we have had all year’,” he said.
“And the overwhelming response this year was positive, with many parents saying they couldn’t wait to come back.”
