Camp Smile is a New York certified summer day camp for children who are blind or visually challenged. Formed in 1972, the camp is sponsored and financially underwritten by the Webster Lions Club. The camp annually hosts an average of 50 children ages' 5-21.

The primary purpose of Camp Smile is to provide real-life opportunities not otherwise available to blind or visually challenged children. The ultimate goal is to encourage each child to be independent, to experiment, to feel and sense things that, for many of them, occur for the first time at this camp.

The director and assistant director are fully trained in health regulations as well as first aid. Health regulations are strictly enforced as to medications, privacy rules, etc.

Services are provided at no cost by the Webster Lions Club and include two-way transportation daily, local housing for those children who attend camp from outside the immediate area, lunches and snacks, insurance and emergency medical/dental assistance.

Financial aid and support are solicited within the community through various fund-raising activities and grants. The Webster Kiwanis Club continues to allow Camp Smile to use their field house each summer at Kiwanis Park, Shangri La Lane, in Webster.

A typical two-week session at Camp Smile may include crafts, non-competitive games, swimming, roller/ice skating, fishing trips, nature walks and field trips. Each session is climaxed with an overnight campout (weather permitting) with the evening meal and morning breakfast prepared by the Webster Lions Club. Camp officially ends with an awards ceremony.

Camp Smile has been deemed a success by the smiles we see each summer on the face of each camper and counselor and the fact that all look forward to returning year after year. Lasting bonds are created between camper and counselor. Many counselors have chosen careers in helping professions (i.e. teaching, speech and physical therapy, nursing, etc.

If you have questions about Camp Smile, please feel to email or call us at (585) 234-5480.

COUNSELORS and COUNSELORS-IN-TRAINING (CIT'S)
Counselors, ages 14-adult, are recruited from local high schools, colleges and the community. "CIT" is a term used to describe new, less experienced counselors who are paired up daily with older, more experienced counselors while performing their duties at camp. This relationship helps to form the bonds of friendship and trust between counselors and, most importantly, between the counselors and their campers. They are thoroughly briefed in a full-day training session before camp begins. Each counselor is assigned to a camper on a one-to-one basis. Each counselor is made aware of the individual and group needs, to which they must be alert and sensitive. Training allows the counselors to be made aware of the individual and group problems to which they must be alert and sensitive.

CAMPERS
Campers must be ambulatory or capable of using a walker successfully since school buses are used for transporting campers to and from camp. Additionally, the Kiwanis Club of Webster has generously donated the use of their facility for Camp Smile for many years. The field house is located on Shangri La Lane in Webster in a wooded setting. Campers visual acuity must be no better than 20/200 in the better or stronger eye with the best correction and/or a restricted field of vision of 20 degrees or less in the better or stronger eye. A camper with monocular vision is eligible. Unfortunately, because of our location, facilities and transportation, the camper must be ambulatory with at least the use of a walker. The definition by the way comes from the Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired guidelines, which most school districts use.