About our 2023 Giving Day project
Looking to create a unique and inclusive experience, MSU's Departments of Health & Human Development and Education collaborated with community members and established Inclusive Community Camp. For the past three years, this summer camp has been the first of its kind in Bozeman and has provided local children with and without disabilities an active, STEAM-focused camp experience!
ICC-Sense-sational STEAM also offers our MSU teacher candidates the experience of working with children of different abilities in a fun and experiential setting. This year’s theme, Sense-sational STEAM, will focus on how we use sensors in our daily lives just like scientists use sensors to make sure our water is clean and our air is healthy. We have exciting activities with temperature guns, coding, and motion sensors, as well as activities about our body’s five senses. Appropriate language, shifting perspectives, and changing the culture of disability will be woven throughout the camp. Support for ICC will help fill a void in our community by bringing camp activities and opportunities for children with varying levels of support needs.
Our goals
The goal is to have ICC become a sustainable program that can grow just as our Bozeman community is growing. ICC seeks to become self-supported through camp fees and community partnerships. This year, ICC is seeking funding to ensure the camp can provide a range of activities, materials, and experiences for all campers, of all abilities.
This campaign has been generously supported with a $500 dollar-for-dollar match. The first $500 dollars will be doubled.
About our organization
Inclusive Community Camp (ICC) was born out of collaboration between the MSU Department of Health and Human Development and the Department of Education. We seek to engage both graduate teacher education students (studying in the online Master of Arts in Teaching program) and undergraduate students studying special education/human development in a collaborative experience serving as camp mentors.
ICC was born of the idea that Bozeman lacks and is desperate for a fun summer opportunity for kids of varying level of support needs. Contacts with our colleagues outside of the university (Eagle Mount and Inclusive Community Solutions, as well as teachers in BSD7) began at inception and each stakeholder eagerly collaborated and contributed to the plan to roll out this camp in the summer of 2020. This project is entirely driven through our stakeholders group with collaboration being at the center of developing and planning for this experience.
Why are donations necessary?
Donor support for this project benefits our teacher education students by providing them with incredible, hands-on teaching experience with children of all abilities. It helps shift perspectives and language for all involved, as working with these children, some who have never been able to experience summer camp due to their needs, have the time of their lives. It helps fill a void in our Bozeman community that is so necessary.