A camp for confidence

“Communicating with coaches is difficult, really all my coaches in sports,” said junior Carter Janorschke while signing to an ASL interpreter last week. “And with my friends, but some of my friends are learning sign language a little bit.”

Janorschke, who transferred to Litchfield School District this year, participates in football, wrestling and track and field. He is also outgoing, and quickly found a group of friends to spend time with.

But connecting with other deaf and hard of hearing students is important when most of the mainstream is able to hear, according to Litchfield teacher Mary Carlson, who sent five students in February to Camp Confidence in Brainerd, Minn.

At the camp, deaf and hard of hearing students from across the state meet and participate in fun outdoor activities such as broomball games, tubing, snowshoeing, watching sled dog races and taking art classes.

Carlson, a teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing for Litchfield School District, has taken students to the camp for 14 years. The most important thing for Carlson, she said, is the students to feel a sense of camaraderie and belonging with other students at the camp.

“They obviously have fun together, but to feel like they belong to a group, to be with someone who is similar to them” is important, she said.

Janorschke has attended the camp a few times with his previous school districts. He said the camp is a place where he has connected with students who are also deaf.

“I met new friends and some of them are more local and some are more distant, and through track I am going to be seeing them again hopefully at a track meet,” he said. But for students he won’t see again soon, Janorschke said they keep connected through social media.

Litchfield sophomore Bailey Snabb also attended the camp this year, and has gone to the camp about four times while a student in Litchfield.

“It’s a good reminder to go and see other kids who have the same thing you have, or close to it, because they know what it is like to have the hearing loss and know how to cope with it,” Snabb said.

Making new friends at camp was also important to Vincent Lee, a third-grader at Lake Ripley Elementary who is another of Carlson’s students. Lee said his favorite part of camp was “hanging out with my friends and getting to know about other people, and my most favorite was tubing.”

Regions 5 & 7 Special Education, which allocates funds each year to give to various groups for projects and events, helps fund the camping trip for Litchfield students, Carlson said.

“It gives them an opportunity to meet and learn about the deaf culture, grow in skills through educational themes, socialize with other students and adults with hearing loss and have the opportunity to explore Minnesota nature in the winter,” Carlson said of Camp Confidence, where more than 100 deaf and hard of hearing students attended in February.

Due to rising costs, the camp is only being offered every other year, but teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing network try to provide an alternative activity such as roller-skating on the off year, Carlson said.

“The students look forward to this camp because they make lifelong friends,” Carlson said. “This is often an ‘aha’ moment for students who are isolated in Greater Minnesota.”

Erika Hart, a 2014 graduate of Litchfield High School, attended the camp for many years while in school, and volunteered this year to teach a class on photography at the camp.

Hart attends Ridgewater College in Willmar to study photography and works part-time at a daycare. She wears a hearing aid — with it, she can hear OK and speaks naturally with others — but without it, she can’t hear at all, Hart said. But Hart credits her mother for giving her as normal an upbringing as possible.

“My mom did a great job giving me both worlds of hearing and the deaf, and I made a lot of close friends who understand my hearing difficulties,” she said.

Although Hart grew up with a strong support system among peers in Litchfield, attending camp with other deaf and hard of hearing students gave her a way to connect with kids who share similar life experiences.

“We all connect and we like to tell each other our own personal stories,” Hart said of the students she met while attending the camp. “I’ve made a bunch of lifelong friends there that I still talk to today. It’s special.”

Camp Confidence also imparted on Hart, well, confidence.

“I think I gained a lot of confidence, especially when I was little, because I was one of the only deaf and hard of hearing students at my school,” she said. “To be around kids that were like me made me get a different perspective.”

That seed of confidence planted in Hart bloomed into a newfound bravery. Instead of feeling limited by her disability, Hart participated in activities like any other student, even if they were challenging.

“I think it’s just me trying to be out there,” she said, referring to what her confidence allowed her to do. “I was in color guard for three years and there were performances where I had to march without my hearing aid, so I’m marching down the road completely deaf and only marching to the vibrations I’ve heard.”

When it rained during parades, Hart noted, she couldn’t wear her hearing aid because it is not waterproof. But hard work, focus and a bit of courage allowed Hart to perform the color guard routine without a hitch.

“Those were always the most difficult, but I felt the most brave after those performances,” Hart said.

Her courage extended beyond classes and school activities and propelled Hart to run for Miss Litchfield last year.

“When I wars running for Miss Litchfield, I was a little nervous telling the judges I was deaf, but when I did tell them my story, they were pretty inspired,” Hart said.

While she didn’t win the title of Miss Litchfield, Hart was crowned as one of Watercade’s two princesses, and is currently serving her year as a member of Litchfield royalty.

Hart said she hopes to continue going to camp to reconnect with friends and teach classes to the students.

“I looked forward to going to camp every year, and I look forward to continuing to go every year in the future,” she said.