Inclusion Weyburn formed just two short years ago, but they've already accomplished more than they had originally imagined.

The City of Weyburn’s Fun In The Sun Day Camp at the Weyburn Leisure Centre (WLC) began this week, and eight children with disabilities are being included in activities alongside the 20 typical children in the program.

“We're very thankful to the Leisure Centre and Tina Clay for being so accommodating for us,” said Inclusion Weyburn president Jackie Wilson. “The staff is really good to try to include them and get them doing things together as much as they possibly can.”

The camp, which is for 6-to-12-year-olds, ran last year for the first time, and it was counted as a success. They’re back this year at the WLC, but Inclusion Weyburn didn’t stop there.

“This year we were fortunate enough to partner with the Family Place, with Dawn Gutzke and Judy Lumb there, and we have four pre-school children who are able to attend their day camp and we are so, so happy for that. So that's preschoolers, three-to-five-year-olds,” she noted.

She said they also wanted to arrange activities for the teenagers with disabilities in Weyburn.

“With the help of Marie Campbell, one of our directors, we managed to get nine days with activities planned for teenagers,” she shared. “Hopefully next year, with more funding, we will be able to do more for teenagers. That's our goal, we want to be able to give them almost every day of summer with camp, too, just like the others.”

With such substantial growth in just over two short years since they formed in March of 2017, the members of Inclusion Weyburn have not been about ‘pacing themselves’.

“At one point, we thought we should slow down and get one camp going, but we couldn't slow ourselves down,” said Wilson. “We see the need and we knew we could swing it, and so this is what we have going for this year.”

She shared how they have noticed the impact the program has on the participants and their families.

“They just have so much fun, and it just helps them to have a good summer to have that routine going and they're more relaxed and happy and their families are happy too so it's all good,” she said.

Wilson noted that education is leading in the direction of inclusion.

“We're just seeing the benefits of that for everyone. Not just the children who have the disability, but for their classmates, for their friends, their peers, for everyone that works with them, it's an amazing impact that it has on our society so it's a good, good thing,” she said.

Wilson said the support of the community of Weyburn has been substantial.

“We've got a long list of donors this year, financial donors and donations in kind, and just people who come out and support our activities and show they care, it's just wonderful. We're so fortunate,” she said. “We have a poster at the Leisure Centre that shows all of our donors and we had to make the poster bigger this year than last year because there are so many of them.”

Wilson noted anyone who wishes to check out the donor recognition poster, or any of their specialized equipment at the WLC, is welcome to do so. They have a swing donated by the Weyburn Young Fellows earlier this year, and, with a donation from the Weyburn Credit Union in June, they were recently able to purchase a bubble tube and mat for the program participants.

Inclusion Weyburn has indeed gained its momentum through community support and initiating programming for children with disabilities, and the organization is likely to set a new standard for inclusion well into the future.