PACK camp goes on, but founders worry about future

It was getting close to 9:45 a.m. Knowing the show was about to begin, children pulled their chairs into position, while Windy the Magician set up at one end of the gymnasium Redeemer Community Church, 9230 Ridge Road, the indoor "campground" for the Pasco Association for Challenged Kids.

"We always have Windy come; the kids love him," said PACK co-founder Paula Cohen.

Once the campers had staked their vantage points, Windy lived up to their expectations with his combination of cornball humor and sleight of hand. Every few minutes, he brought up one or two children to assist him, adding to the enjoyment of their fellow campers as Windy pulled gentle practical jokes and sudden tricks, making birds appear from balloons and such.

Paula and her husband and PACK co-founder Barry Cohen laughed along as they watched Windy do his magic, taking a brief break from their concerns that they will have to pull more than a rabbit from their hat if they don't want this to be the last PACK camp.

"It would be sad to see this go after 13 years," Paula said.

The Cohens started PACK back in 1997 when they realized there wasn't a place for special needs children like their autistic son to go during the summer. PACK is for any student enrolled in a Pasco enrolled in a district school who has a disability severe enough that it precludes them from going to other programs.

The camp provides the children with three-week summer oasis of activities and entertainment. But while PACK fills a gap in services in Pasco County, it slips through the cracks when it comes to sources of funding.

"Everybody says, 'apply for grants,'" Paula said; the problem is they don't quite qualify for any. "You have to fall into a category. You have to be an arts program, or a sports program, or an education program."

Also, PACK is not a year-round organization, which excludes them from certain sources of funding. The camp has had supporters over the years, and their champion from the beginning has been state Sen. Mike Fasano, R- New Port Richey.

"Mike Fasano's the one who's been responsible for getting us funding since we started in 1997," Barry said. "I can never thank him enough for what he's done for us. He really enabled us to put this together."

Among other things, Fasano directed them to government help. For several years, PACK could count on a $50,000 grant from Agency for Persons with Disabilities. But state budget cuts ended that in 2008.

"In all fairness, (Fasano) said, 'someday the money's going to run out,' " Barry said. "He's been telling me that for along time. You can argue whether it's right or it's wrong. It is what it is, and you just need to deal with it."

To make matters worse, around the same time local sponsors pulled their purse strings shut tight.

"With the economy being so bad, even people in area who've helped us in the past, like doctors and dentists in the area, donations totally dried up this year," Paula said.

Because of the nature of the camp, the staff has to be trained professionals, including a nurse who is on duty at all times. Insurance rates are high. Even with a trim-to-the-bone approach, there are some corners that can't be cut, and for a while it looked like this year's camp wouldn't happen.

"We drove everyone crazy with 'the camp is on, camp is off, maybe it's on, maybe it's off,'" Paula said. "We realized the only way of having camp was I had to ask my staff to take a huge pay cut this year.

"Our staff pretty much said, 'hey, half a loaf is better than none."' Barry added.

"And I had to raise the parents' fee to higher than I ever did before," Paula said. "I knocked a lot of kids out by raising the fee higher, and I felt horrible about that. When you have a kid with a disability, and I do, I know how expensive it is."

The Cohens watched as their campers laughed along with Windy.

Two more weeks of fun, including "moonwalk day" and "water day," a couple of perennial favorites that the Cohens will have to set out finding the funding to continue once this year' camp is over.

"We're very small," Barry said. "We're known within Pasco County. The school district, the district, the disabled community, people know us, but outside of that, people don't know who we are, which makes it tough."

To find out more about PACK, visit its website . To contact the Cohens, call 727-372-9516 or e-mail Pascopack@verizon.net.