How you can support SOAR
Here are several ways you can help spread the word about SOAR below (or click here for a printer-friendly PDF)
Word of Mouth:
- Talk to other families in your community (Share your story!)
- Reach out and offer information to other families who attend your child’s school and offer guidance and help answering questions about Summer Camp (Share your story!)
- Talk to your school administrators
- Talk to your school therapist
- Offer to speak at an AD/HD speaking event (i.e.CHADD, or local LD support group and share your story!)
*When you have the gift to share a personal triumph your child has experienced, it speaks volumes to families who are seeking support systems like SOAR.
Internet:
- www.campratings.com, post a comment about your positive camp experience
- www.mysummercamps.com, click on Camp Forum then Parents Corner and feel free to comment about SOAR
- www.Addconsults.com, under resources click on Chat
- www.LDonline.com, Scroll down to features, click on forums, Parenting a Child with LD or ADHD, and feel free to click on a topic
- http://kids.lovetoknow.com, click on Kids Activities, ADHD Summer Camp, Scroll down to comment box
- www.usnews.com, Click on Health, Type in search box “ADHD Summer Camp”, click on “ADHD Summer Programs Near You”, then click on comment
Letters:
- Write a letter to your School or Headmaster (offer to provide school with SOAR brochures or offer to host a family night or arrange a speaking engagement facilitated by our Executive Director)
- Write a letter to your local newspaper (explain how AD/HD High-Adventure Summer Camp worked for your child)
- Write a letter or talk to your child’s therapist (offer to provide them with SOAR brochures)
- Write a letter to a Summer Camp Magazine (each state usually distributes a book with listings)
- Write a letter to ADDitude or Attention Magazines
- Write a letter to our Admission Teams (we would love to include your letter on our testimonial page)
*Letters should include the challenges and triumphs your child experienced from our program, help convey the message of how SOAR worked for your son/daughter. Please see the example letter for ideas.
I am confident there are families in desperate need of an environment like SOAR. Help us find them so we may nurture resilience, encourage success, and develop important life success attributes. Please feel free to contact us directly with any questions or comments.
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Philosophy: SOAR believes all individuals identified with learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficit disorder (AD/HD) possess inherent talents and gifts. These abilities can mean incredible success in adulthood once these students negotiate the challenging obstacles of childhood, adolescence, and a traditional education system, usually unable to respond to individual learning styles.
Therefore, the SOAR model is based on two fundamental principles. First, youth with LD and AD/HD flourish when they are encouraged to focus on their strengths in an experiential setting. The second principle acknowledges that success can be generalized by encouraging our students to develop and utilize strategies, enabling them to compensate for those challenging characteristics of LD and AD/HD. To this end, SOAR staff strive to ensure success for each student across a wide range of experiences. Such success, in turn, builds essential self-esteem and self-confidence.
Based on these two foundations, SOAR participants develop problem solving skills, effective communication strategies, increased self-awareness, and social skills. Program activities include a broad base of wilderness adventure experiences that empower students to make healthy choices, learn more about themselves, overcome challenges, and establish relevance from these experiences to other aspects of their life.
SOAR's Specialty Courses are open to SOAR alumni and students with the maturity and experience level to be successful on the course. Acceptance is conditional on the approval of the course director. Most specialty courses are led by one of SOAR's year-round staff including Jonathan Jones, John Willson and Logan Walters.
SOAR’s programs are designed to allow students the opportunity to increase their independence while away from home. Independence is gained through self-motivation and life skills instruction. With this in mind, we involve our students in many decision making processes, such as setting individual goals, developing group guidelines, as well as trip and meal planning. This also comes into consideration when developing SOAR’s communication policy, detailed in our Parent Handbook.
SOAR is dedicated to serving the needs of individuals with learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficit disorder (AD/HD) and is proud to be the finest: