Teen camp in Sweden: From first-day nerves to strong bonds
Climbing, river rafting and adventure in the Swedish forests gave 13 young people with CP the courage to push their own limits. But the greatest adventure may have been finding a community of others who know exactly what it is like to be a teenager with CP.
The fire crackles in the mild Swedish summer evening. It is quiet around the campfire. The young people look around at one another, waiting. There is some uncertain shifting in the garden chairs, until one of the boys breaks the silence.
“I’d like to nominate Clara and Maddie for Fighters of the Day. They were just so cool on the rocks today.”
Several of the others nod straight away. The last traces of the day’s laughter still hang in the air after a warm evening of stone-baked pizza, a quiz and group dancing.
It is the last evening of the Elsass Foundation’s teen camp. For four days, 13 teenagers with Cerebral Palsy (CP) have been at an adventure camp in the Swedish forests with a team from the Elsass Foundation. The days have offered rock climbing, stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking, river rafting, archery and axe throwing. All of it got their hearts racing, tested their nerve and made them rely on each other.
For 15-year-old Clara Daubjerg Olsen from Egå near Aarhus, the butterflies in her stomach were really fluttering. The group set off on Monday afternoon from the Elsass Foundation in Charlottenlund for Blekinge in Sweden.
“I was actually nervous about everything on the programme,” Clara smiles. “Just the thought of sleeping in a tent out here in the forest. But I was also ready to push my limits.”
15-year-old Clara Daugbjerg Olsen (centre) had butterflies in her stomach before she checked in at the adventure camp. She was there together with 13 young people who also live with CP. PHOTO: the Elsass Foundation
A huge boost
Pushing your own limits is one of the most important aims of the camp, according to Tobias Knudgaard Jensen. He is a project coordinator in the Foundation’s Sports & Leisure department and one of the camp’s organisers.
“We can see that the young people get a huge boost from throwing themselves into challenging situations,” he points out. “Not just the physical challenges but the social ones too, such as being away from home on their own, maybe for the first time, and meeting a lot of new people.”
The camp starts with the young people writing down personal goals to share with the others and work on along the way.
“When you overcome something you’ve been afraid of, both your confidence and your belief in your own abilities grow,” Jensen explains.
Cheering, heights and high spirits
Clara stands looking up at the tall rock face. The grey granite rises steeply towards the sky. Even though she knew climbing was on the programme, the wall suddenly looks much higher in real life.
“I did know it would be challenging,” she says.
The other young people stand around her. One by one they set off with ropes around their waists and hearts pounding.
Several of the young people have difficulty with strength and function in their arms, legs and hands. That can make getting up the wall a huge physical effort, Jensen says.
“It takes a lot of willpower and mental support,” he explains.
When it is Clara’s turn, she takes it one step at a time. From the ground below comes the chorus of cheers: “Come on, Clara! You’ve got this!” The voices below make her reach for one more hold.
For Jensen, the climbing day is one of the moments when the purpose of the camp is clearest.
“There were some wild and moving moments at the rock face. I watched young people struggle for a long time to reach their goal. It’s not necessarily about getting all the way to the top. For some, getting three metres up is a huge victory. What matters most is that they challenge themselves and come away with a personal victory.”
When Clara is back on the ground, she cannot hide her smile. She did it.
“We’re just really good at supporting each other,” she says later. “We cheer each other on, and then we celebrate when it’s over.”
High spirits from Clara as she nears the top. PHOTO: the Elsass Foundation
It took plenty of willpower, and plenty of cheering from the others, to get up the rock face. PHOTO: the Elsass Foundation
Break the barrier
It cannot be taken for granted that 13 teenagers will form a close bond in a few days, Jensen says. So the activities at the camp are planned with care.
From the very first day, the team helps the young people break the ice. In “Break the Barrier bingo” they go around finding things they have in common, using prompts on a bingo card such as “I like cooking”.
“It creates a lot of easy conversation while they get to know each other. We do plenty of icebreaker activities, so the young people relax quickly and feel at home in each other’s company,” he says.
Another tradition at the Elsass Foundation’s camps is handing out t-shirts for Friend of the Day and Fighter of the Day. Each evening the group shares moments from the day, large and small, where participants have shown care, courage or helpfulness.
“It’s about bringing out the good stories and noticing each other. When we share experiences from the day, the young people often discover that others have seen and valued something they did. But it’s also a good feeling to be the one nominating someone else. The t-shirt isn’t the important part. What matters is all the good that happens in the group,” Jensen says.
Deciding Fighter of the Day and Friend of the Day brings out the good stories from the day, where the young people have shown courage, attentiveness or care, says Tobias Knudgaard Jensen (right), a project coordinator in Sports & Leisure. PHOTO: the Elsass Foundation
“You can just be yourself”
“Clara’s going in the pool!” The young people gather laughing around Clara. Together they lift her up and throw her into the big pool in the corner of the campsite.
Most of the 14 teenagers met each other for the first time only a few days ago. Now they tease each other, laugh and mess about while they talk about music, football and likes on Instagram. Their latest crazy idea is throwing each other into the pool fully clothed.
It is clear that they feel at home in each other’s company. According to Jensen, this particular closeness does not come only from the activities at the camp.
“At the camp you meet other teenagers with CP who you can often see yourself in,” he explains. “That can help you feel quickly that you fit in.”
For Clara, it is also about a very particular calm feeling in the group at the camp.
“At home, my classmates don’t understand in the same way what it’s like to have CP. They might think we’re lazy, or that we want attention. But everyone here knows that’s not true,” she says, and continues:
“When I’m with young people without CP, I usually feel I have to be more switched on and try to be like everyone else. Here you can just be yourself, because you can feel that everyone else is too. That sense of safety you get with each other right from the start is contagious,” she explains.
You can feel the nerves before the girls take on the camp’s last big challenge. PHOTO: the Elsass Foundation
Big smiles in Clara’s boat as they fight the current on the Swedish river. PHOTO: the Elsass Foundation
An experience that stays with you
“Come on! Paddle as hard as you can on the right,” Jensen shouts to the young people in the raft. They are fighting against a strong current.
River rafting is the camp’s last big challenge, and Clara feels the nerves building. It looks wild. The girls gather around her, and once they have helped each other into the boat, the nerves quickly disappear. Soon the boat is racing through the water, with the girls’ laughter carrying all the way to the bank.
When the group reaches the finish further down the river, they are shining with pride.
It is exactly this kind of experience that changes something in the young people, according to Jensen. The team sees a big difference between the young people dropped off by their parents on Monday and the tight-knit group picked up four days later. By then they are buzzing with energy.
“The young people discover that they can do more than they thought. They can take that experience home and use it long after these four days are over,” he says.
When Clara looks back on the days in Sweden, it is not only the wild adventures that she remembers.
“What I’ll remember most is the sense of community. We’ve had so much fun together and done a lot of silly things. That’s probably the best thing about the whole camp,” she says.
