It was always comfortable because we were all together. And we knew we were going to wake up to our lovely breakfast in the morning.
…if someone was to give you a gift in life of something… that is the most wonderful gift to give to a child – friends. For a child to have friends… People they can relate to.
When you wake up – you’re friends you’ve made will be there – that was nice – that was a special feeling unique to the camp. I think… if anything made me cry it was that I felt that loss when I went home – massively now I come to think of it. And I think now – looking back – that was the saddest thing that we never stayed in touch.
Do you know – I have great memories of our breakfasts. All the children would come down in the morning and we’d have cereals, we’d have eggs, bacon, sausage, orange juice, everything we wanted and we all got on really happily together.
This was a time of my life when I made new friends
P – Patience Practicalities Powerful Purposeful Peaceful
H – Humility Hilarity Honor Horse-Therapy
A – Apprehension Accepting Achieving Arguing Art Acting
B – Boisterousness Blisters Beginning-to-Understand Bedtime-Bliss Beans
C – Cooperation Convincing Comprehending Creating
A – Archery Appreciation A-Guitar Achey-Body Achieving
M – Music Making-Phriends Muscles-Strengthened Making-Mistakes
P – Phascination Phatigue Phorgiving PHUN!
I’m delighted to be contacted by PHAB again, thank you. I briefly checked out your website, and am humbled to realise all what emerged from our relatively small beginning in ’67 - ’68. Speaking to those involved now, though we don’t know each other personally, opens a wonderful window into shared experiences that impacted us and so many others from so long ago through today and clearly moving forward in time.
I will never forget what a great time I had making friends and getting to know disabled people and the great memories.
For me, my first camp in 1971, without wishing to sound grandiose, was a life-changing experience. We were simply young people having fun. No-one wore stickers saying they were able-bodied or disabled. There was no ‘them and us’, only ‘us’.
It was an incredible feeling. I had to come back! So I went on Senior again the following year, before arranging Creeping PHAB with Tony Gray in 1973.
The 1977 Senior camp was the first of several l went on, so there are far too many memories to choose from. Perhaps most of all I remember the ecstatic highs of being part of a large group of people all having fun and enjoying each others' company together; and the appalling low feeling on the day after camp finished and we were all apart.
I started off as a volunteer of 17 thinking that I might contribute a little help to others; but the truth was I learnt and took from Phab and those I met on the camps far more than I ever gave.
A life changing experience to meet and work with like minded volunteers who were there to help the children integrate together. My abiding memory was when the whole camp walked/ pushed up British Camp in the Malvern Hills, not far from our Base in Hanley Swan. A very steep and quite long climb. The views from the top were a delight as we could look towards Wales and the Cotswolds. I joined the committee 3 weeks later and have been on it for 38 years so far. I also married Sally , a fellow volunteer
I was 7ish the 1st time I went. My favourite activities were swimming and cinema. I remember with the cinema describing to a blind participant what was going on visually. I felt proud of myself to break my shyness with assisting someone to understand what was happening in the cartoon. I also enjoyed swimming. I remember my friend getting upset seeing a amputee remove his prosthesis to swim. I calmed him down as I discovered I had no fear nor judgement of our differences.
Rosie and Katie. They were our cooks. We would go out for the whole day, leaving them at the centre, and return to steaming hot trays of food.
We played football against the army; 11 soldiers vs 40 children–they didn't stand a chance!
My first camp. Led by the now chair of PHAB Maxine Ross-Wallis and Comittee member Kevin Whitaker
So many memories of this week:
The absolute enthusiasm of all the volunteers.
The way that the children were supported and looked after to complete activities.
The fun. The laughter. The comradeship. The team.
The life changing realisation that .... children first - disabilities second.
The centre being massive and having the most unreliable “stair lift”
A long sheet of polythene, a hill, buckets of water and some washing up liquid – the perfect ingredients for a PHAB afternoon !
We celebrated Christmas day, in August! Turkey for dinner, a party and a visit from Father Christmas
It was too light for a midnight walk so we all wore dark glasses and went out with our torches ☺
Bruce fell down the well at Alton Towers, I jumped in after him!
When Breakfree camp relocated itself to The Wingate Centre, in Wrenbury, Cheshire – things for me wouldn't be the same. It was here that I met my best friend – but we didn't realise this until many years later. So here I met Jill Butler .... and the rest is history !
And now in 2017 Jill and myself will be leading a Breakfree camp of our own at another new centre – The Pioneer Centre – it's fair to say we are certainly looking forward to this!! :))
I remember my first ever PHAB camp and the moment when I really 'got' what PHAB was all about. Supporting a disabled child to swim, seeing how much they were enjoying the freedom of being in the water, instead of their chair, witnessing the able-bodied children interact and involve them in their games, made me realise how something so simple can be very rewarding and really proved to me how important my volunteer role was. The PHAB bug bit and 11 further Senior camps followed!
On my 1st camp as Leader, we were having lunch at a lake near Pensarn Harbour. It was a warm day and some of our participants were prone to overheating and one or of the volunteers were attempting to solve this potential problem. Partly in jest, I suggested to "chuck them in the lake" as it was fairly shallow where we were. Some of the volunteers actually saw this as a potential solution and within a couple of minutes half of the camp were soak. Soooo many smiles. PHAB really happened that day.
Doing a Photo Challenge Scavenger Hunt, and everyone in our team working together to spell out PHAB by contorting our bodies into the letters! We had some odd looks from passers by but everyone had such a laugh!
Everyone was outside at the Wingate Centre one afternoon after the day’s activity, and it was a boiling hot day. 2 of the volunteers sprang out of the door with water bombs and started pelting everyone with water bombs, and that was it, every single person got involved in a massive water fight! We were all soaked to the skin at the end, but it was amazing to see everyone, participants and volunteers with huge smiles on their faces! For me that moment captured the essence of PHAB.
At least one of us has been present on every Senior Camp between 2003 and 2015 either as a volunteer, or as leaders; and more often than not at the same time ‐ to the point where it is perfectly normal for us both to respond to being called either Jodie or Vicky
Looking back over the camp reports it is incredible to think how much we actually did over those years, the number of children we took away and the amount of volunteers who supported us.
He had such a fantastic week and met some amazing people who now, after more than 10 years of PHAB, we class as family. And Joel just lives everyday counting down the days to the next PHAB holiday
I really enjoyed these holidays and I made some great friends whilst on these holidays and I was always with some friends from school.
The day I conquered the Wheelchair Assault Course
Birmingham PHAB Camps and Breakfree 2 2011 is always going to be one of my favourite memories as it totally changed my life, having never worked with children before. After that experience I ended up moving to Birmingham, working in residential childcare and SEN education and have now done 14 camps in 5 years, 3 as leader. Thank you for changing my life Birmingham PHAB Camps.
Where did you go? The wonderful Wingate Centre!
Who did you make friends with? My best memories of the camp was sharing a room with the other volunteer Jenni and our wonderful participants Mo and Jay in the room just beyond. I also had the pleasure of making friends with Ste, Andrew, Mickey and lots of other lovely volunteers!
What was your funniest memory? I remember Mo's amazing singing and dancing on the bus, making us laugh even when we were all tired. I also remember how much Jay loved being sprayed with water in the water fight! Every time we stopped he kept signing more and then bursting out laughing when the sprinkler was turned on!
Truly, being a volunteer at a PHAB camp was one of the most fun, exhausting, funny, rewarding and memorable weeks of my life. I feel honoured to have met all the amazing volunteers and young people participating.
Monday saw us spend the day with Everton Football Club where we had a sports session with some of their disability outreach coaching staff, which involved some football and basketball skills being showcased.
We then had a tour of Goodison Park, the home of Everton followed by photographs overlooking the pitch.
When I took him out for a day trip we had to be superheros so we found a wall to climb as Spider-Man!
Our team were climbing the wall when suddenly the bells started ringing, and he said "is that God?"
Seeing our participants (some of whom had never been to the beach before) playing in the sea at Blackpool, and the pure enjoyment and confidence they got from that. Also, Holly's expression as the sea washed over the chair onto her lap - hot chocolate afterwards was much appreciated!!