Kind of amazing that I’ve taken this long to post about this. Camp ASCCA.

My first PR job was with the Alabama Easter Seal Society. Yes, students, I’m talking about Camp ASCCA (Alabama’s Special Camp for Children and Adults) – again.

For those of you few people, other than my students, that read this – you need to know that I tend to talk about ‘camp’ from time to time. It has become a joke, of sorts, since students will sometimes ‘sigh’ when I use a ‘Camp ASCCA’ analogy. But, this is my reality. So, here goes …

I wanted to try new things. I wanted to make Camp ASCCA the voice of new ideas about dealing with, and responding to, people with disabilities. I wanted people to think differently about them. I wanted to put more focus on their abilities than their disabilities.

Some people thought what I was doing – was a deal with the devil.

My deal with the devil, in the eyes of the administration and Board of Directors of the camp, was with mainstream media. Everybody wanted the attention. They didn’t want the ‘message’ to be contrary to the (then) accepted theme of ‘No man stands so tall when he stoops down to help a crippled child’ … honest, that was the phrase of that day. You see, ASCCA originally stood for ‘Alabama Society for Crippled Children and Adults’. I didn’t like that saying or the term – crippled. Certainly, the campers didn’t like being called crippled. So, it occured to me – why not talk about this raw reality. Let people see what it is like to live with daily ostomy bag changes. What is it like to be confined to a view from three feet off the ground 24/7?

The camp had never received significant media attention. It was still young. Only 7 years old. Today, the camp has over twice as many buildings and facilities as it did then. A multi-million dollar facility operating year-round. The site covers 260 acres and sleeps up to 450. In camping terms, it probably more resembles a resort. Why? All the buildings and cabins have air conditioning and wide, spacious interiors. Why? Hey, we serve people that are not used to the rigors of ‘roughing it’ in the wild.

Still, we actually did (and still do) rustic camping trips. I’ll just ask you to imagine, for a moment, what it is like to get a wheelchair deep into the forest. Heck, just imagine what it is like to get one 10 feet deep into the forest.

My ‘deal’ was to invite (in intervals) all of the major print and television markets in the state (Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery and Huntsville) to visit the camp for a few days, or a week – as long as they wanted to stay. We provided them with a place to stay (private rooms – unheard of for camp visits at that time). We provided camp meals and full run of the facililty. This last part – full run of the facilities – was the part that scared the camp’s directors and leaders.

I’ve always believed that if you trust your employees and trust your program (the mission, the purpose) you can’t go wrong with exposing it to anyone – even in its rawest of forms.

So, surprisingly, when I was successful in attracting attention from each of these markets (they actually came over for visits), the administration was a bit surprised and – well, wary.. We were so successful that they came just about every other year and also for special events. Some of them came several times a year.

Upon arrival, I met with the reporters and photographers and shared that I would, of course, be available for anything they wanted – but, I would really prefer it if they would just – have free run of the camp. I wanted them to be in the camp cabins in the morning when campers are getting ready and at night when they were going to bed. I wanted the reporters to see – everything!

We secured all of the appropriate releases – separating out those campers that were wards of the state and could not be included for legal reasons – and released the hounds, so to speak. Anything was fair game.

Why did I do this? Well, does anyone really think that a reporter would be cruel to a camper? Put them in a bad light/situation? No. If anything, they (the reporters and photographers) became – advocates. They saw everything. They experienced the relationships developing between campers and counselors. They saw kids that rarely even got out of the house, now riding horses, going canoeing and much more.

I won’t go into all the details, but just sit for a moment and imagine what it must be like to be quadraplegic. To have little, if any, movement abilities. What is it like to live with an ‘ostomy’ of any kind? How does it make you feel to have to depend upon others – always? Once the reporters experienced this (and most had no clue as to what they were in for) they were taken with the relationships that can develop between camper and counselor in just a few short days.

It was funny, sort of. Almost all of the reporters took the Cinema Verité form in their reports. The reporters saw that the story would tell itself. I don’t know of one story from all of those visits (and there were lots of them) that did not win some sort of AP or UPI best news series/story/feature award over those years. They were powerful.

At the end of their visits, I always provided the reporters with [a] blank video tapes (then 3/4) and home 1/2 VCR tapes, and [2] a request that they provide us with a copy of the finished projects. Every station always provided b-roll footage and complete stories. Later, when we made presentations to groups – we just showed these stories. What could be more powerful? Then, local TV had great respect among viewers. OK, it still does to a large degree, but back then – WHOA! It had real impact.

These stories came with built in trustworthiness. And, later on, when we needed to make PSAs, I just wrote to the stations and asked for permission to use the video from the b-roll tapes. Everyone of them ‘always’ said yes. We edited the spots ourselves. Hey, we had great video, ambient sound, etc… and those spots? All of them won awards, too. Go figure.

Why were we, a little camp serving children and adults with disabilities, so successful in attracting attention? Typically, my experience was that these media outlets looked upon these stories as fluff. They were seen as ‘public service’ spots … void of real value for their target audiences.

I tried to change that. I wanted the stories to bring out the real lives of these people dealing with (not suffering from) their disabilities. Back then, that was a new idea. Very new.

First, I pitched the camp’s attributes in what was then considered an almost sacrilegious way. I was talking about disabilities just as the people with disabilities talked about them. In a raw, personal and (sometimes) painfully open form. I actually had people say (only a few times) that my ‘pitch’ was irreverent and contrary to a topic that is held to be sacred. Children with disabilities.

I pointed out that many of our campers (ok, ‘clients’ if you want the sterile view) were essentially shut-ins. Some looked at their one or two week stay at ASCCA as their vacation from boredom. Schools, if they were lucky enough to be in one, didn’t offer much (if anything) for their recreation needs.

It was at Camp ASCCA that I learned direct mail, outdoor advertising, TV production, media relations, government relations, public speaking (thousands of ‘em, actually) and much more. This kind of experience is invaluable to any new PR practitioner. Working for a non-profit often requires that you be jack (or jill) of all trades. It develops you into a zealot, of sorts. I worked 12 to 18 hour days without blinking an eye. It was wonderful.

So, perhaps this gives you a better idea of where I come from in my PR career. I strongly encourage students to consider work or internships with non-profit organizations. I do believe that you will both love, and benefit from, these experiences. Helps you develop the ‘servant philosophy’, too.

Camp ASCCA was the greatest experience of my life. I would never exchange those 10 or so years for anything in the world. Part of me actually wants to go back – every day.