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| BELVOIR TERRACE SUMMER ARTS AND MUSIC CAMP FOR PEOPLE WITH WILLIAMS SYNDROME - THE PRIDE OF AMERICA!
The experience of the first UK family to visit the camp: In September 1996 a family friend who lives in The Hague, Holland sent us a video tape of a recently broadcast television documentary featuring Oliver Sacks and the extraordinary talents of children and young people with Williams Syndrome. It was a video that was to determine the direction of our lives for the rest of the year and to provide us all with an experience so rich that, even as I type this article in January 1998, some six months later, the memories come flooding back and the benefits for myself, my family and my son, Joe, who has Williams Syndrome are inestimable. I hope to describe some of the most memorable moments for you and hope that I can do justice to what has been the most rewarding family holiday ever! Background: The video (later broadcast on BBC TV) was a defining moment. It brought together parents, professionals and an interested outside expert to reflect on the extraordinary talents and limitations of young people with Williams Syndrome. By the end of the programme we felt that we had already made many friends across the thousands of miles that separated us. We identified with their pain and their joy; their sadness and their determination to find an outlet for the talents of their ‘disabled’ children. We watched so many young people displaying their uninhibited and delightful musical abilities with a determination and professionalism that is so often regarded as the preserve of the musical elite. They were being supported by teachers who marvelled at their talents, encouraged them through their distractions and had high expectations of what they could achieve. The programme convinced us that this was a recipe for success and at the end of watching the programme I paused the tape to write down the address. And so began our determination to visit America, and Belvoir Terrace, for the first time! Belvoir Terrace, Lenox: Founded in 1954 by Edna Schwartz, Belvoir Terrace is a family-owned summer camp for the training of young women in the performing arts. It is in the town of Lenox in western Massachusetts, close to the Tanglewood Music Centre. The Director is Nancy Goldberg, and Diane Goldberg, is Associate Director. Belvoir, as far as we know, is the only summer arts and music camp for people with Williams Syndrome. The idea for a camp was generated by Sharon Libera at a meeting set up by the Williams Syndrome Foundation-USA (WSF) and chaired by Howard Lenhoff. Both have musically talented Williams syndrome children, pianist and clarinetist, John Libera, and soprano and accordionist, Gloria Lenhoff. The very next day Lenhoff contacted Nancy Goldberg of Belvoir Terrace. A month later a committee of parents visited Belvoir Terrace, and Nancy Goldberg agreed to try this most unusual camp for a week in the summer of 1994. Lenhoff, while both President of the WSF and a board member of the Williams Syndrome Association (WSA), convinced the WSA to co-sponsor the camp with the WSF, and to publicize its availability to members of the WSA. Just as anticipated, forty families jumped at the opportunity to surround their children with music for a week. The major goals of the camp are to foster the natural musical ability common to many with Williams syndrome, and to provide them with advice that will help guide their musical activities after they leave camp. All of the students, whether or not they have had any previous musical training, are exposed to many opportunities with professional instructors. For example, daily lessons (private and/or group) from a choice of piano, voice, drum, wind instruments and guitar; ensemble playing; solfege (ear training); musical theatre; modern dance and art. In addition, instruction in swimming is provided as well as free swimming time. Most importantly, it is a special camp where individuals with Williams syndrome explore their love of music, make friends, and have fun. The ratio of staff to campers is approximately 1:1. Instructors are carefully chosen for their talent, enthusiasm, ability to communicate, and interest in working with special campers. Full-time counsellors live with the campers and escort them in small groups to classes. Our experience: From our very first contact with Belvoir and Sharon Libera (now the camp Coordinator) it was clear that the level of support and organisation would make us both welcome and reassure us that our investment, both monetary and emotional, would be worthwhile. We have two children, Ruth and Joe. Ruth is fifteen and Joe, at the time of the camp, was thirteen. Joe, in common with most young people with Williams Syndrome, adores music and has a particular passion for the Blues. He has an extraordinary knowledge of Blues performers and numbers - the envy of many men with similar tastes - but he is a reluctant performer. He is progressing well with the mouth organ and since Belvoir Terrace he has taken up the bass guitar. Ruth is a very talented singer and has a particular interest in young people with disabilities. The venue would be a perfect testing ground for Joe as a performer and allow my wife (Barbara) and myself (Bob) to live and work with the people that we felt we had already come to know so well. The holiday of a lifetime was agreed over a family meal in the aptly named ‘Rhode Island Diner’ in our home town, Derby, England. Little did we know at the time that we would visit Martha’s Vineyard, New York Boston and Maine!! We hadn’t even consulted the map to find out where in the world Lenox might be! We decided to make the Summer Camp the end of a four week holiday and booked our flights. The anticipation was intense. The reality will never be forgotten! From the moment we arrived we were made welcome and made to feel part of the group. Joe was promptly whisked away by his friend and counsellor, Gabe, who provided twenty four hour care and attention for the whole week - an exhausting task accomplished with sensitivity to the needs of each individual in the bunk room and a skill of being an unobtrusive adult. He was the perfect friend for Joe and we are mindful that although Joe attends a mainstream school in the UK he has no age appropriate friendships. Gabe was perfect! Ruth quickly made friends with the sister of anther camper and as the week went by they became part of the camp. We settled into the sort of conversations that parents all have a need to express: the when, how, what!? of having a child who is different. With parents from the USA, Canada and Japan, we laughed, wondered, worried and reassured ourselves that the world would understand our children. The week gathered pace. Nancy Goldberg, the camp director, managed the forty or so campers, staff and children with consummate ease! Her high expectations and the skill and dedication of the instrumental, voice, dance, theatre, eurythmics and art teachers combined to make it a most rewarding and stimulating programme for all of the students. Joe started to overcome his reluctance to perform. He enjoyed his sax lessons and within hours had performed his first solo at an evening concert! Those steady breaths also helped him to overcome some of his shyness (not something we tend to associate with WS!) and he later took a great interest in the bass electric guitar (which became his Christmas present). He enjoyed the musical theatre and eurythmics classes. Something I have always noticed about Joe is that he listens intently to his music. It is part of his relaxation and, to a large extent, helps to define him as relatively calm individual. He can often be found listening to music and browsing through a book. It was no surprise that he enjoyed the eurythmics - the only problem is trying to find a way of his continuing such classes here in the UK. An able swimmer, Joe delighted in the encouragement he received and also persevered with his bete noir - art! He just can’t stand the touch and the smell but was coaxed to produce some clay and paint work! My words just cannot begin to describe these accomplishments and the tremendous atmosphere of the place. A full week is spent being a spectator on the success of so many young people who are otherwise considered to be dysfunctional. Special events are provided every evening. Campfire songs, recitals featuring the students, guest musicians and staff and, on the last evening, at a time when you have drawn so much from the week’s events and performances that you are short of breath, a performance by the campers, in costume and with choreography, of South Pacific. The final performance. The growth of so much talent. The pride of so many young people and their parents. The overwhelming emotion felt by so many. This is Belvoir Terrace - the pride of America. Just down the road from the camp a mainstream musical event is taking place at Tanglewood. Earlier in the day these eager students had visited a rehearsal of Mozart’s 40th. Symphony by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Andre Previn. The normally exuberant group maintained an intense and deeply appreciative silence throughout the rehearsal. One student was so moved by the work, feeling it so intensely, that she had to withdraw. The intensity of her performance to her peers later that day moved me in the same way. We will never forget it.
Post Script: In August, 1998 the camp will be open to people with Williams syndrome for its fifth continuous year. In September of 1999, the Williams Syndrome Foundation (USA) will open at Belvoir Terrace the first academic year (September through May) residential Academy of Music for Williams people. |
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Please send mail to williamssyndrome@insightbb.com with questions or comments about this web site.For additional information about Williams syndrome, please send an e-mail to hlenhoff@uci.edu.For contact with other Williams syndrome families --In the USA: please send e-mail to info@williams-syndrome.orgOutside the USA:
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