A golden 'Chance': Camp provides retreat for young man

For those with mental and physical disabilities, camp is more than a week outdoors. For Chance Swindle, it's a retreat from a challenging daily life. Chance has cerebral palsy, is non-verbal, has a tracheotomy and uses a computer for his voice output - but he doesn't let that stop his philanthropic aspirations.

Chance Swindle has been attending Camp Summit, a summer camp for those with mental and physical disabilities, since he was 7. According to his mother, Jennifer, just before his 14th birthday Chance decided he would help other campers do the same.

"It just started as a way to give back and a way to help fund camp, but we raised $1,400 just the first year," Swindle said. "It's an opportunity for him to be with his peers."

Chance's Big Give has continued its success and raised more than $6,000 last year. This will be the fifth year for Chance and his family to host Chance's Big Give Fundraiser, but according to Jennifer, it hasn't always been easy.

"He has had a very tough couple of years," Jennifer said. "In the last two years he's been hospitalized 12 times and has had five surgeries. Two years ago he ate normally, breathed normally and two years later breathes through a tracheotomy and has a permanent feeding tube."

But Chance's physical challenges won't keep him from camp in July or from hosting his fundraiser in September.

"Chance is a happy, funny, loving child with a great sense of humor," Jennifer said. "Camp means more to him than anything in the world. It's his everything. It's his favorite thing in the world - the only thing he has. Parents with normal kids go from soccer to baseball to other sports, but this is our everything."

Although Chance will be turning 18 this year, camp will be bittersweet. His father passed away suddenly in December, and this will be his first Big Give without his father. It is also the first year that, because of having only one income, Chance and Jennifer will have to apply for a "campership." When asked what it felt like to go from donating to the camp to receiving a scholarship, Swindle said, "It was very humbling."

"It's one of those things that so many times we don't know what life holds for us," Jennifer said. "Sometimes you just need to pay it forward because you never know when you're going to need the help yourself."

According to Jennifer, there are more than 50 families in the Plano area that attend Camp Summit and more than 100 in Collin County.

"Camp Summit takes all ages, all disabilities, and I think that's something people underestimate so many times," Jennifer said. "There is a camper that has attended camp for 57 years. It is a very unique thing, and there isn't another in Texas that does that and only a handful in the United States."

Last year, more than 100 people attended Chance's Big Give Fundraiser, and Chance and his family are hoping for another large turnout.

"We have so many people that really want to rally behind his effort," Jennifer said.

This year, Chance's Big Give Fundraiser will be at Main Event in Plano.

"The Big Give event is being held Sept. 16, but we are already aggressively working on signing up bowling teams, making plans and soliciting folks for prize donations," Swindle said. "He is attending his weeklong session at Camp Summit in July."

Chance's Big Give Fundraiser will be 7-9 p.m. Sept. 16 at Main Event in Plano. For information about the fundraiser email Jennifer at jsmercy2008@hotmail.com. For information about Camp Summit visit campsummittx.org.

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