NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. -- A Pasco County camp is celebrating a big milestone.
It has been 20 years since Paula and Barry Cohen started running one of the only day camps in the area that takes in kids with severe disabilities.
- Pasco County camp for kids with disabilities celebrates milestone
- Pasco Association of Challenged Kids has been open for 20 years
- Paula and Barry Cohen started camp to give son a place to go during summer
- More Information: Pasco Association of Challenged Kids
Now two decades later, the couple is still taking in kids that other summer camps won't.
"If our camp were ever to close, they'd just be home for the summer because regular camps wont take kids that aren't verbal, aren't potty trained, have feeding tubes," Paula said.
It's called the Pasco Association of Challenged Kids, or PACK for short. This year, they're holding camp at the Genesis School in New Port Richey.
The two started the camp twenty years ago to give their son Gregory a place to go during the summer. He is severely autistic and like many kids with disabilities, needed somewhere to go when school was out.
"They started chopping summer school hours. And the lack of structure was very frustrating to him," Paula said.
So they started PACK, and with some state support, they brought campers like Kimberly Gilliand back year after year.
"I get to do arts and crafts. And go outside and play on the swings," Gilliand said.
Even though their son no longer attends, the Cohens keep it running.
"We kind of just feel the pressure to keep doing it because if we closed up shop next year, these kids would just be stranded," Paula said.
Being one of the only camps in the area that does this service, they hope to keep it going as long as they can.
"Just being here and seeing these kids have fun is what makes it for me," Barry said.
The camp will be awarding Pasco Tax Collector Mike Fasano and State Senator Wilton Simpson for their ongoing support of the program in the next few weeks.