PROGRESS: Camp High Hopes puts finishing touches on Sensory Garden

One of the campers, who has autism, was playing "Joy to the World" on a giant set of chimes.

"I go over to him and I was like, 'Is that 'Joy to the World'?' He goes, 'Yes. Yes. Yes. I have perfect pitch, so I can play this,'" Morgan, the camp's advancement director, recalled in September.

In 2020, the Sioux City camp put the finishing touches on the Sensory Garden, a centrally located outdoor space equipped with large weather-resistant musical instruments, a light and sound game, talk tubes, a water table, painting panels and a gazebo with a wheelchair swing. The 90-acre camp serves children, teens and adults with disabilities, special needs and chronic illnesses.

"Kids were playing on this last summer when we had camp, but we really didn't put all the finishing touches on it until this year," Morgan said. 

Morgan said the camp needed a free play space where campers can relax. She said all of the camp's activities have a specific start time, end time and purpose. With archery, for example, instructors teach the proper technique with the hope that campers can hit a bull's-eye.

"We didn't have a place for our campers for free play, for them to kind of explore, be creative, have a place to hang out outside and just relax and be," she said.

Since the camp welcomes all ages and abilities, Morgan said a playground wasn't quite the right fit. Instead, camp leadership came up with the idea for a space that would tap into the senses.

The Junior League of Sioux City provided the first and largest grant to jump-start the project, which began in April 2019. Several volunteers from Junior League explored what types of instruments and elements would work best in the space. A grant from the Gilchrist Foundation followed, further helping the project come to fruition.

Knife River donated the concrete and groundwork, while Lewis Electric provided the electrical work and Lechner Lumber the lumber. Volunteers from the Regional Council of Carpenters designed and built the water table, and the All Abilities Coalition provided the shade tents. CMBA Architects was responsible for design and layout work. The Sioux City Garden Club contributed funding for trees, bushes and raised garden beds. The wheelchair gazebo was made possible by the Lewis and Wente families in memory of TJ Wente II.

"Everything is adaptive. Everything can be reached from our campers in wheelchairs or if they're using walkers," Morgan said. "The painting tableaux over here, you can see they're at different heights to accommodate different abilities and different sizes of campers we have, and the same with the water table, too. Everybody can play."

Once the threat of COVID-19 has passed, Morgan said the camp intends to open up the Sensory Garden for reservations for individual and group therapy sessions. She said the camp acquired a bubble machine and plans to add the sense of taste to the garden next summer with flavored bubbles.

"It's really important for us to continue to add new things for our campers to do to keep them coming back and to keep them interested in camp," Morgan said. "We want to be able to continue to offer these unique things that our campers can't get anywhere else."