Kids are empowered to play at Santa Rosa camp

Corte Madera mom Nikki Miller will be among the proud parents attending a graduation ceremony this week that celebrates the tiniest yet most monumental of achievements.

Miller has two young sons attending Boost Conductive Education Camp in Santa Rosa, an intensive, five-week therapeutic movement program for children and teens with motor disabilities. It’s where participants use repetitive motions to improve tasks from grasping utensils to taking first steps.

The program emphasizes daily efforts and successes.

“Sometimes you don’t see it throughout the five weeks, but you see it in the aftermath,” Miller said. “They’re doing it.”

Wheelchairs and walkers are left outside the door at Boost Camp, now in its 14th year in Santa Rosa. The staff provides verbal instruction with guided demonstration to help kids attempt tasks many have never tried before.

For some, it’s improving strength, weight bearing, balance and agility, allowing them to sit or stand unassisted for the first time. For others, it may be drinking from a straw or eating with a spoon rather than using a gastric feeding tube. That’s a huge milestone for a child whose central nervous system is impaired by cerebral palsy, spina bifida or a head injury.

The multidimensional, holistic program improves independence, self-esteem and family dynamics. Parents and educators say the camp transforms the whole family.

“It’s teaching our kids on so many different levels,” said Miller, who rotates camp duties with her husband. Parents and caregivers are an important part of the program, attending daily and learning skills to integrate at home for continued success.

The Millers have been learning conductive education practices alongside their sons, Carson, 3 , and Chase, 2 , both of whom have cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects movement and coordination.

The approach includes problem-solving skills and intense physical exercises that promote grasping, pushing and pulling, vital skills for mastering daily tasks. The conductive education model blends medical knowledge with educational methods.

It’s Carson’s second year at the camp, a privately funded program administered by Petaluma-based United Cerebral Palsy of the North Bay. Carson’s little brother is a first-year camper.

“Last year was super eye-opening for us,” Miller said. “It really inspired us.”

Her sons share a love of “planes, trains and automobiles” and “love, love, love to be read to,” Miller said. The brothers cannot walk or talk but communicate their joy with broad smiles.

“They’re like the best little kids ever,” their mother said. “They have the best personalities and dispositions.”

Katie Lightfoot, a development associate with the Petaluma agency, serves as Boost Camp director. Now 24, she began as a volunteer when she was a 12-year-old middle-school student.

Lightfoot says the program is impressive in its mission to restore motor control and coordination, foster children’s confidence and independence, and promote integration into school and society.

“Their life is changed for the positive,” she said. “They walk away wanting to do more. It continues to empower them to reach their fullest potential.”

Lightfoot oversees the 23 campers, many of whom return each summer. This year’s participants include those from as far away as Chico, Reno and Los Angeles, with local host families opening their homes to cut expenses and share hospitality. There is a wait list for the camp.

The Rincon Valley Union School District offers classroom space, where three paid movement specialists called “conductors” work with 40 volunteers, including community members and students from Sonoma State University, Santa Rosa Junior College and Casa Grande and St. Vincent de Paul high schools in Petaluma.

They work in teams to establish and encourage individual goals for campers who have a wide range of functioning levels.

The daily program begins with sage therapy to relax muscles that are constantly tense or spastic. Sage, a common herb, is placed in sock-like cloths and soaked in hot water, then wrapped around participants’ joints for 20 minutes.

Active stretching exercises to increase mobility and body awareness follow. The day continues with activities that encourage balance control, fine and gross motor skills, speech refinement and communication.

Songs signal transitions between activities to help cue participants.

“It’s like active learning through repetitive movements,” Lightfoot said. “Every single day it’s done in the exact same way so the child knows what to expect. Over time the brain makes that connection.”

“Each movement has a purpose,” said Susy McBride, Boost executive director and one of two Sonoma County moms who founded the program, initially established with a United Way grant.

McBride learned about conductive education by chance while watching “60 Minutes” on television. She and her husband had searched and traveled widely in seeking help for their daughter Alexa, now 25, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a baby.

Doctors were less than encouraging.

“They told us to leave Alexa alone, to have another child, that she will never do much,” said McBride, a Santa Rosa interior designer who has supported Boost Camp since its inception.

Today her daughter holds degrees from Santa Rosa Junior College and Sacramento State University and is an anti-bullying program mentor pursuing a career as a child advocate.

McBride sees the same potential in every Boost Camp participant.

“With brain-damaged children, they have to choose different pathways. With the guidance of conductors, they can learn the best possible way to do that,” she said. “The progress these kids make is amazing to watch and witness.”

Participants work hard throughout the six-hour camp day. Says Lightfoot, “There’s crying, but there’s really happy, joyful moments, for the children but also for the parents and caregivers.”

Miller said the camp provides welcome camaraderie and resource networking for families, as well as offering “sort of a nudge” toward encouraging children’s independence. Adults begin to recognize that Boost campers are capable of far more than expected.

“It offers hope,” Miller said.

Graduation is bittersweet, as it marks the program’s completion. Eventually, Lightfoot and McBride hope to expand Boost Camp to a year-round program.

Financing currently comes through donations and fundraisers, with scholarships available for those unable to pay the $1,200 fee. Boost organizers are grateful for the generosity of local businesses, corporations and individuals that make the camp possible.

“These kids deserve it. These kids deserve a year-round program,” McBride said.

“So they can achieve the unthinkable,” Lightfoot said.

For more information, visit boostcamp.org or watch “Together We are the Change” by filmmaker Justin Crowe at https://youtu.be/Dw1k2-Gm1tk.