An educational program unique to Clarkston is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

SCAMP is a five-week summer program designed for people ages 3 and up with special needs. It was founded in 1985 by Bob Brumback, a special education teacher in the district.

SCAMPers, as they are called, experience swimming, art, music, field trips, and nature under the supervision of staff, therapists and volunteers three days a week over five weeks.

The program has a one-to-one ratio of supervision for each person who comes to the camp each summer. Last year, 180 staff supervised 165 SCAMPers.

“We have SCAMPers that are in their 40s and have been coming here since they were little,” said Executive Director Amy Darnell. “It is the highlight of their summer to reconnect with friends and give them a little bit of normalcy.”

SCAMP has operated for a half century with the help of private donations, sponsorships, grants, and fundraising events, such as their annual golf outing and Walk and Roll at Clarkston High School.

Darnell said private donations fund the majority of their annual budget and they have seven to eight grants from non-profits like Eagles for Children, based in Canton, the Michigan Elks and the Zonta Club of Flint helping each year as well.

Darnell said she needs to raise $750,000 annually for the program.

Over 52% of SCAMPers require financial assistance, and no child has ever been turned away due to an inability to pay.

Clarkston in-district tuition for the camp is $700 and out-of-district tuition is $1,100.

“We never turn anyone away for financial reasons, we find the funding,” said Darnell. “My job is to make sure we are funded so that we can not only pay for camp, but we can accept anyone who needs financial assistance.”

The camp services all of southeast Michigan, but just under 50 percent of the participants are from Clarkston.

“Our Clarkston community has really made an effort to embrace and include SCAMP year around,” said Darnell. “They have really taken advantage of this opportunity and have invested themselves and their children in this program.”

Jim Butzine served as camp director from 1975-1990 and remembered how fast the program grew.

“In our first year we had 42 students and by my tenth year as director we had 252 students, “ Shultz said in a February interview for Independence (Township) Television.

Brumback, founder of the program, explained how SCAMP began to become part of the community shortly after its inception.

“I didn’t think that these kids should be in the summer with just other kids with impairments, so in those first few years we allowed the staff to bring their own children and they integrated beautifully,” Brumack said in an Independence Television interview. “They went home and they talked about these kids every night and their parents got excited, so that sort of started in-roads to the whole community for SCAMP.”

This year’s camp begins June 23 and will be based at Sashabaw Middle School.

The program has always been based in Clarkston schools and had been run out of the junior high school since it began, but construction shifted the program to Sashabaw until renovations are completed.

SCAMP has access to district buses for transportation and Darnell said the majority of the time SCAMPers are on field trips throughout the area including private movie screenings at MJR Theater, trips to Independence and Groveland township parks, the LegoLand Discovery Center and aquarium at Great Lakes Crossing and the Clarkston Family Farm.

“Most of our groups are gone two, if not all three days each week,” said Darnell. “We want them to get out and experience as much as they can and interact out in the world and build social skills and do things they would not normally be able to do.”

“For 50 years, SCAMP has provided a truly special opportunity for children who may not otherwise get to experience the joy of summer camp — games, laughter, friendships, and lasting connections,” said Shawn Ryan, Clarkston schools superintendent. “It has been a wonderful partnership, and we are both proud and honored to stand alongside SCAMP as true partners in making a meaningful impact in the lives of so many.”

Darnell said the support of the district is one of the keys to the longevity of the program.

“We would be lost without them,” she said. “We would not be able to do the work we do without Clarkston schools.”

After listening to Brumback speak about the program, Darnell understood the importance of what SCAMP meant within Clarkston.

“I knew after listening to him, I knew I had been given this precious gift, this very fragile thing and now I want to make sure that we are here for another 50 years so they can celebrate their 100th anniversary,” said Darnell.

On May 31, they will bring back the Home Tour, where guests tour nine historic homes in downtown Clarkston in the afternoon, followed by Patrons Night, a dinner fundraiser which includes a silent auction and live entertainment at Union Joints in downtown Clarkston.

The Home Tour fundraiser began in 1983, but was discontinued in 2017 and is being brought back for the 50th anniversary of SCAMP.

Their annual Walk and Roll will take place on May 18 at Clarkston Junior High School.

For more information on the program go to www.clarkstonscamp.org