Timber Pointe Lodge

Project Goals | Population Served | The Camp Experience | Family Support | How I can help

Timber Pointe Lodge

Rotary Tradition

Easter Seals started out as a Rotary project, back in the early 1900’s. It was a Rotary project that just kept going, and going, and going, with its start almost 85 years ago.

Rotary helped create Easter Seals back in 1919 to serve children with physical disabilities.

In fact, Paul Harris served on the first Easter Seals board of directors. Rotary clubs, especially those in Illinois, have a long and rich tradition of supporting Easter Seals’ work with children with disabilities and their families.

The Timber Pointe Outdoor Center, owned and operated by Easter Seals, serves a broad range of children and adults with disabilities and special needs.

The facility was initially designed to accommodate fewer than 100 participants in summer camps. Last year, Timber Pointe Outdoor Center served over 1000 campers.

Hundreds more are served in its year round outdoor programs that meet the needs of individuals with disabilities and their families as well as the community at large. Year round programs include respite sessions, family oriented programming, educational programs, and team building programs and much more.

The project goal is to raise $3 million in three years to construct a lodge complex that will provide critical accessible and centralized services and resources, to include kitchen and dining room areas, a medical services facility lodging for medical staff, a storm shelter; program and assembly areas as well as camp administration and support services.

Currently facilities are inadequate in size and scope to meet the needs of today’s campers and the level of care and services required for increasing complex conditions.

Timber Pointe Outdoor Center is a statewide resource. In 2001, campers represented 51 Illinois counties as well as 7 other states. In 2001, Cook County supplied 174 campers followed by McLean with 126, Sangamon with 68, Peoria with 60, Tazewell with 46, Dupage with 31, Will with 30, Champaign with 25, Macon with 23, Woodford with 21, and McHenry with 20.

All sections of the state are well represented at Timber Pointe. It is a statewide and regional resource for helping children and adults with special needs and their families.

Timber Pointe Outdoor Center provides a very special experience for some very special children. Its 170 wooded acres, 7 miles of trails and 4 miles of shoreline provide the setting for campers of all ages to attend residential camps, day camps, and family camps.

Certified staff members help campers participate in activities like swimming, fishing, canoeing, hiking, arts and crafts, and nature programs – all designed to help increase independence and confidence, build relationships and provide a great degree of fun.

Perhaps most importantly, Timber Pointe helps provide increased opportunities for independence and the chance for children to develop friends, skills, and increased confidence in their abilities.

All are skills and opportunities that will benefit them for a lifetime.

In addition to Easters Seals children and adults with physical and developmental disabilities being served, TPOC regularly serves as the chosen site for a number of contract camps.

Such groups include the Muscular Dystrophy Association; Camp Blackhawk (Epilepsy Foundation of Northern & Central Illinois); Illinois Brain Injury Association (including a week dedicated to the Pediatrics Group with Traumatic Brain Injuries); Camp COCO (SIU School of Medicine – for youth affected by cancer and blood-related diseases; Sickle Cell Camp (University of Iowa); Camp Ability (Illinois Spina Bifida Association); Champ Camp (for youth and young adults who are on ventilator dependent); Red Ribbon Trails Camp (individuals and families affected by HIV and AIDS virus); MS Camp (National Multiple Sclerosis/Greater Illinois Chapter); Camp Limberlost (Kiwanis Club of Bloomington) for at-risk youth; and finally, Camp Chatterbox (children using augmentative communication devices.)

In no small way, Timber Pointe Outdoor Center can play an important role in keeping a family healthy.

Parents and caregivers can use the facilities for “respite weekends”, a time to get away, relax, and attend to personal needs and relationships.

Offered year round (4 or 5 times a year), a weekend respite may give the parents the chance to just enjoy a quiet dinner together, read a book, or provide some additional attention to a sibling whose needs often take a back seat to a brother or sister who has a special need or disability.

What’s next?

We need your involvement to make the above vision become a reality.

It might help to know that a team of Rotarians, namely, the Timber Point Charitable Foundation (a private, not-for-profit entity) has committed to supporting this project by pledging $1 million in funding.

Even with their help, our financial needs remain at $2 million to develop and build this vision.

The physical Lodge plans are in place. Building layouts and ideas have been converted into blueprints already.

We’re ready to move onto the next step. Learn how you can have a presentation made for your club!

Or visit the Easter Seals/Rotary Lodge Web Site to see what all four clubs are doing to make this dream a reality!

Help us by exercising your connections within your community and within our state. Your involvement, from effective grant writings, to foundation requests, to personal appeals and community fundraisers will all go a long way in helping us continue the tradition of Rotarians supporting Easter Seals and their mission.

For more information, please contact us at bnsunrise@yahoo.com.

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Revised: August 2, 2002 .