A Delta non-profit that runs summer day camps for kids with special needs is looking for donations of original art to be auctioned as part of a fundraiser next month.
For more than 30 years, Delta Life Skills Society has offered six-week summer days camp for children and youth with disabilities. The program — the only one of its kind in Delta — helps bridge the gap between school years, giving participants daily structure and learning within the framework of fun outings and recreational activities, according to the organization’s website.
“Basically it was developed because families have this whole two-month period of time where they have their kids with special needs at home, and it’s a really tough time,” said Melissa Sabatini, whose 18-year-old daughter, Sophie, has Down syndrome and has attended the camp every summer since she was seven.
“All kids need that structure of a daily routine, but especially kids with disabilities; they need that routine, they need somewhere to go every day, they need that structure. I know that my daughter cannot be out of school very long before she starts to get into a bad routine. She needs something to do every day just to keep her on track.”
Sabatini said kids with special needs also sometimes don’t have the sort of friend group other kids can lean on and do things with in the summer, another gap DLSS’s summer camps help to address.
“My child doesn’t anyway, she doesn’t have a social circle outside of her family and her school, so this is really important for her social skills.”
The camps give participants opportunities to practice a wide range of life skills, such as traffic safety, handling money, riding transit, personal care, grocery shopping, meal preparation and social skills, all while engaging with the community or going on excursions around Metro Vancouver.
In addition to more local activities like swimming, bowling, heading to the beach and going to movies, campers also venture out on trips to popular destinations like Playland, Grouse Mountain, the Greater Vancouver Zoo, Science World, the Vancouver Aquarium and Big Splash Water Slide Park.
“It’s a really unique program. There’s not really anything else like it,” Sabatini said. “It’s really fun. My daughter Sophie loves it, she looks forward to it every year, and she doesn’t complain about going.”
The program operates from resource classrooms at Sands Secondary in North Delta and Delta Secondary in Ladner from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day (this summer from July 4 to Aug. 19), creating a comfortable, familiar environment for participants. Campers are divided into small groups (typically five to seven kids each) based on age and activity preferences, and staffing is one-to-one, ensuring youth receive the attention and support that they need.
“It is really unique. None of the other municipalities or cities seem to have anything like this. I feel really lucky that my child has been able to do this for most of her life, because, like I said, two months is a long time to be off school. It’s a life-saver,” Sabatini said.
In 2022, DLSS expanded its program to add a monthly social night for pre-teen and teen camp participants to meet up, order pizza and play games throughout the year.
“It’s great because our kids don’t always get invited out to do those kinds of things, so it’s a really good experience for them to have a social group that they can hang out with,” Sabatini said.
But DLSS’s summer program isn’t cheap to run — camp costs about $9,100 per child. Parents pay only a portion of that, about $1,600, and each family is also required to fundraise $1,200 over the course of the year.
“So that means we [DLSS] have a huge amount of fundraising to do,” said Sabatini, who has volunteered as the society’s fundraising co-ordinator for the last two years.
“We get community grants and we are subsidized by some companies, we get sponsorships (...) and we do fundraising programs throughout the year, so it gives our families a chance to be able to [hit their $1,200 goal]. So many of these families would not be able to participate without the support from fundraising and grants, and so it’s an ongoing challenge to try and bring in fundraising opportunities.”
She said it can be especially hard for some camp families to find time and opportunities to fundraise.
“Some of them are struggling at home with behaviours and extra health challenges and all of that, so for them to be running around knocking on doors looking for funds, they just don’t have it in them sometimes. So it’s challenging. So we try to give easy and fun things for them to participate in to fundraise.”
This year, the society has decided to try hosting an online silent art auction as a way to raise the much-needed funds, and they’re asking for local artists to donate original work in any medium — from paintings, prints and photos, all preferably mounted and framed to pottery, sculpture, art cards, felted works, knitting, weaving, textile art and more — by May 16.
“There’s so many crafty people in Delta. It’s a very artsy community, both North and South [Delta],” Sabatini said. “We’re just looking for artists to donate original pieces, anything that could be considered art.”
The donated works will be displayed together at Ladner Baptist Church on May 31, after which the online auction will go live for about a month (exact dates will be announced later via DLSS’s social media and website).
Also on May 31, the society will be hosting a garage sale at the church, where camp families will be invited to purchase a table and sell their stuff.
“It should be a fun day,” Sabatini said. “I’ve had some really nice art pieces come in so far, but we really need the community. Artists, please donate!”
Anyone looking to contribute something to the auction can contact Sabatini by emailing fundraising@deltalifeskills.net or calling 604-809-2135 by Friday, May 16. Along with the art, artists are asked to include a brief bio, a description of the piece and its approximate value.
DLSS is also looking to hire several support workers for this year’s summer camps, details are posted at deltalifeskills.net/work-with-us. Applicants are asked to send their resumes and cover letters to staffing@deltalifeskills.net with "Support Worker" in the subject line by April 30.
