For one hour a week, a third floor gym of the Blatt P.E. Center is filled with the sounds of small children rather than those of group exercise classes or intramural basketball as Camp Carolina takes over.
Held every semester, the six-week program provides an adapted physical education experience to local children with disabilities. For the student volunteers who run the camp, it's a chance to get practical experience that will carry over after graduation.
"The value for the [children] is that sometimes they do not necessarily feel included or important in their physical education classes, so here they can be around similar peers, feel important, feel included so that they can be fully engaged," said Ali Brian, a professor of physical education within the College of Education. "For our students, they're all physical education majors, so it gives them some experience with teaching students with disabilities."
Brian created the program alongside third-year doctoral candidate Sally Taunton when both were brand new to Carolina.
"I saw that there was not really a lot opportunities for young kids with disabilities to participate in sports and physical activity, so since there was not a lot already existing in the community we decided to build it here," Taunton said.
At first, the pair worked with a handful of children with visual impairments. This semester marks the third year of the program, and they are at maximum capacity with about 22 participants. Some of the kids are on the Autism spectrum, others have conditions like degenerative eye diseases or Cerebral Palsy.
"They can do anything that any other child can do ... it just kind of takes a little something extra or something maybe a little bit different," Taunton said.
Brian, Taunton and their team of volunteers like first-year doctoral candidate Emily Gilbert are determined to provide each child with a positive experience that benefits the kids' motor and social skills as well as their overall health.
Gilbert and her fellow volunteers, who work one-on-one with a child each week, range from post-doctorates to undergraduates. The common thread is a desire to help these kids while learning more about how to include children with disabilities in the P.E. classes they'll eventually teach.
"It's not just one array of kids, it's more school-like where you're gonna get a variety of children with different needs, different abilities and different disabilities," Gilbert said. "That's a big experience for students."
Although her work is beneficial to her education, Gilbert admits her favorite part is "playing with the kids."
Each week is focused on a different activity, such as soccer. The kids work with their assigned volunteer on warm-up activities like push-ups, learn new skills and end with a camp-wide game. Each participant gets individualized attention, and the equipment they use is specially designed for the adapted needs.
For the participant's parents, it's often eye-opening to see all that their kids can do.
"It's kind of amazed me, because I've seen him do things that I never dreamed he'd do," said Carolyn Klear, whose son is in the program.
Carol Lemelle, who has two kids attending the camp, is excited to see how it helps her sons on multiple levels.
"I look for anything that will benefit them in any area of their lives," she said.
In addition to the short term benefits of the program, the volunteers write up reports on each child that parents like Lemelle and Klear can take back to their kids' schools.
Staff writers Juliana Morehouse and David Schmitt contributed to this report.