Implementation Overnight Camp Program
I designed and launched Deaf Plus as an integrated camp model that brought Deaf campers and staff into the existing Interlocken community — not into a separate program — while building the ASL programming, staffing, and interpreting capacity required for full participation. The evidence follows that work across three stages: my 1999 proposal; Deaf Plus in operation in 2002, documented through Interlocken’s program page, camp photographs, and participant testimony; and the 2007 national recognition of American Sign Language at Windsor Mountain.
ProcessDesigned from personal experience and revised each summer in partnership with Deaf counselors.
An archived article announces the Summer 2000 Deaf Plus pilot and outlines the staffing, interpreting, ASL, and Deaf-culture programming planned to integrate Deaf campers and staff into camp.
By 2002, Deaf Plus was in its third year: ASL classes across camp, a Deaf Plus staff team, guest artists and performers, and plans for six Deaf campers in Summer 2003.
In 2007, the American Camp Association named “American Sign Language @ Windsor Mountain” a recipient of the Eleanor P. Eells Award for Program Excellence.