The Summer of Hope: The Power of Friendship at a Boys' Summer Camp

by IanCotton (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $13.97

  Each summer autistic children are dropped off by their parents for a holiday at a camp in Berkshire where they are welcomed and looked after by young Scouts from London's East End. This is the story of the effect these two sets of boys have on each other. Camp Mohawk is a scout camp where, in any given week during the summer holidays, around a dozen specially trained Explorer Scouts from Newham look after a series of disabled children. In this stress-free and happy environment, there develops a remarkable interaction between these autistic children, whose behaviour is among the most difficult imaginable, and their tough, unacademic, young Scout carers, aged 10 to 14 mostly, from one of the poorest areas in England. With minimal adult supervision, these boys deal patiently with incontinence, aggression and anxiety, giving the autistic boys the one experience that no adult carer can ever match - friendship.