Donna Trella heads Reach for the Rainbow, an organization that integrates children with disabilities into regular summer camps and after-school activities.

Donna began with one camp in 1987. This summer Reach for the Rainbow will enable over 950 children and adults with special needs to participate in 64 Ontario camps. BLOOM talked to Donna about raising her daughter Dove, 27, who has multiple disabilities and is a ‘wiz’ at puzzles and game shows. It was Donna’s dream of an inclusive world for Dove that sparked the creation of Reach for the Rainbow.

› How did people respond to Dove’s disabilities?

Dove had brain damage that arose out of complications during her delivery. When Dove was labelled ‘mentally-retarded’ at 18 months, I was told she couldn’t go to her regular daycare anymore. She had to go to school for children ‘like her.’ When Dove was three, I took her to (an outdoor art activity). She reached up to touch another child’s painting, the child tried to stop her, the painting ripped, the child screamed, and the father gave me a tongue lashing. I sheepishly explained that Dove was brain-damaged and he yelled: “What do you mean she’s brain-damaged, she doesn’t look brain-damaged to me.” Well, actually, I said, she’s mentally retarded. “Lady, if your kid is retarded, why do you have her here?” That pretty much summed up the attitude of the time.

› How did you get the idea for Reach for the Rainbow?

Another parent* and I wanted to change attitudes and we knew that would only happen with education. So we approached Ontario Place to ask if they would dedicate a day to celebrating differences and integration. They loved the concept and told us to organize it. From 1983 to 1987, Reach for the Rainbow Day was held every Victoria Day. We brought all the disability groups together to provide education, adapted the forum and built in support services, such as one-to-one buddies for single parents of kids with special needs. We decided we wanted to do the same with summer camps: to create healthy attitudes and then build a one-to-one support infrastructure. We went to existing camps and pitched our idea.

› How do you create a positive environment for kids with special needs at regular camps?

First we try to effect attitude change, to make sure the children are welcome there. We’ve learned the lesson that one bad apple can spoil the whole bushel: we need to make sure that everyone, from camp directors to the nursing staff to the board, is on the same page. Then we create a one-to-one support model for the campers. We adapt the camp curriculum and facility, we interview the child and create a profile, and we train the young people who will work with the child one-to-one. In some camps that take harder-to-serve children, we install an integration facilitator onsite. Prior to camp we do training for all camp staff, so we can promote healthy attitudes.

› What has been the greatest challenge?

To financially maintain a stable portfolio to keep the funds coming in. When you put a conservative estimate on our one-to-one workers we are making over $3 million worth of respite available for families each summer. I’m a recipient of the service myself as Dove goes to camp, and I know that out-of-home respite is a rare commodity for families. We don’t get any government funding but we do have long-standing corporate support from companies like BMW Canada and Teranet Inc.

› What have you learned through Reach for the Rainbow?

To never underestimate children. Our children are like roses — every year they come back healthier and hardier and more beautiful. The more you get to know them, the more beautiful they are, the stronger they are and the more special they are.

› Can you share some examples of inclusion?

I remember standing in a mess hall where the kids were eating. One of our young lads, Dan, who has severe cerebral palsy, was there with a support worker and an able-bodied child he had befriended. A counsellor looking after the next activity said: “Nobody is moving on to this activity until you’ve finished everything on your plate — and I mean everything!” Dan’s sandwich had been cut into small pieces on his plate and his friend grabbed the last of it, opened Dan’s jaw and stuffed it in. When he heard the counsellor say ‘every one of you’ this boy didn’t think to the exclusion of Dan.
Another time, I was with a corporate stakeholder at one of the camps, and we watched two kids — one in a wheelchair, and one on crutches — come into the lunchroom. It was noisy and loud, and the children were singing ‘Kum ba ya.’ “You know what,” said my colleague a few minutes later. “I saw two of the Reach for the Rainbow students come in, but from where I’m sitting, I can’t tell which ones they are.”

› What advice would you offer other parents?

Never stop looking at your child as a child first. Believe in your child’s entitlement to everything that life has to offer. There are no boundaries.

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