Camps for Kids with Special Needs

The Adaptive Sports Foundation is scheduled to open a state-of-the-art, 7,200-square-foot teaching center on the mountain, accessible to all persons with disabilities.

Camps for Critically Ill and/or Abused Children

When you think of Southern Nevada, images of Las Vegas and the Strip often come to mind. But there is something else tucked away in the mountains outside of Las Vegas—Camp Project Sunshine (702-434-3699). This program provides cost-free, medically supervised camps for children with severe illnesses, severe arthritis, and those who come from abused and neglected homes.

All camps hosted by Project Sunshine are held at Torino Ranch in Lovell Canyon, a private ranch donated by Las Vegas resident Brett Torino. Since its inception, Project Sunshine of Nevada has sent between 2,500 and 3,000 children between ages four and 17 to camp, through the help and support of volunteer counselors, oncology nurses, doctors, firefighters, and metro police officers.

Comfortable camping facilities include a lodge with meeting rooms, dining room, commercial kitchen, fireside room, dance hall, laundry facilities, shower and bathhouses, two lakes, a swimming pool, and luxury log-sided bunkhouses for campers and counselors. The ranch features swimming, rock climbing, challenge courses, canoeing, arts, crafts, theatre, horseback riding, hiking, scavenger hunts, hayrides, train rides, various sports, and much more.

There are four Project Sunshine camps available:

• Camp Independence is designed to provide a fun, nurturing, and educational camping experience for children with bleeding disorders and their siblings. These children test their limits, gain new skills for living independently with their disorder, meet others similarly affected, and become mentors to younger children with bleeding disorders.
  
  
• Camp Fire Fly helps children with cancer or critical illnesses overcome the physical, mental, and emotional obstacles posed by childhood diseases.
  
  
• Camp Haven helps abused and abandoned children feel safe, nurtured, affirmed, and encouraged. Camp Haven provides these very vulnerable children the opportunity to participate in a variety of outdoor camp experiences while promoting positive peer interaction.
  
  
• Camp Sol is designed for children suffering from the constant pain associated with arthritis and provides them with a place where they can meet others who understand their experiences and where questions are not an issue.