Five years ago this month, the TV show, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” came to Camp Barnabas, located near Monett, to give the camp some help.
During the early morning hours of Aug. 17, 2005, the Extreme Team, campers and Christians In Action (CIA), knocked on the door of camp directors Cyndy and Paul Teas stating that they had been chosen as the weekly project.
As Paul, Cyndy, their daughter Kayman and their son, Trace, left the house, more than 3,000 volunteers descended to makeover the camp.
The camp exists to return childhood experiences to kids who have been robbed of them by disease, the Teas say, noting that many of the campers endure unthinkable pain and isolating treatment for illnesses such as cancer, hemophilia, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy and AIDS.
During the weeklong process, the Teas' run-down home was burnt to the ground to make for a new home. In addition, the camp received a bunkhouse for volunteers, a media center, sewer and underground electrical lines, a layer of asphalt on the main road, a new "zip line" for the high ropes course and improvements to the playground.
When the Teas returned to their home and the camp, they, along with the thousands of volunteers, campers and the TV show's hosts shouted three words "Move that bus!," revealing what had been accomplished.
Since the makeover, the camp has grown.
“We have always had kids from far and wide, the makeover made it even more kids from far and wide,” said Cyndy. “Our camp was full each week at 100 campers before the makeover. We built new cabins over the next two years and now we max out at about 150 campers a week. There are always more volunteers than there are campers, because we have one-on-one with disabled kids, one-on-two with the siblings, a work crew, kids and extra people.
That brings the total up to around 450 people at camp each week.
To get the makeover team into the camp, Cyndy’s niece submitted an application about a year before the team came in.
“They do an extraordinary amount of groundwork and interviewing,” Paul said.
Once the makeover team came in and the Teas were sent off to vacation, the campers and the Christians In Action (CIA) stayed at the camp.
“They (makeover team) really became interested in really giving to the program and so, they built two other buildings, a bunkhouse that holds 40 beds (for the volunteers) and a media room,” Cyndy said. “We had no idea they would do as much as they did, we are just totally shocked.”
Their house is a lot more efficient now, including accessibility.
“They made our home totally accessible,” said Cyndy. “Before, it was not built for people in wheelchairs, now if we want to have some campers come over, just visit with us and be a part of life aside from camp, everything is accessible. They made it a fully accessible home.”
And talking about growing, Camp Barnabas is looking for the future.
“We started this summer, what we call the ‘B2’ program, and that is where we are taking this program to other camps and teaching their staff on how to work with special needs campers,” Paul said. “We did one a few weeks ago up near Seattle, Wash., and next week, we are doing one down near San Antonio, Texas. We have six more camps lined up already for next year in the country.”
Another aspect being developed at Camp Barnabas is a new medical center, to be located near the front gate of the camp.
“Our medical center, we have outgrown it, when we added 150 more campers a week and 50 more volunteers,” Cyndy said. “For a camp, we have a huge health center, but we are not a typical camp. For example, next week, we have 150 campers and 110 are in wheelchairs and of that 110, probably 45 or so, are fed through a G tube (a tube that goes directly into the stomach) four to six times a day… we have just outgrown it (medical center).
“The neatest thing about our new health center is that not only will it serve camp, but because we felt like we needed such a big building, we felt like we could not justify that building only being used nine weeks a year, so we have partnered with a group out of Neosho, the ACCESS Family Care, and they are going to do a satellite clinic over here two days a week using our facility, so it will be an outreach to our community.”
One of the campers who was in attendance this week was Taylor Dugan, 13, from Neosho, who is visually impaired.
“I have been doing a lot of things actually, going fishing, swimming, canoeing, horseback riding, a lot of things to do here,” Dugan said, who has been going to the camp for five years.
“I come back because it is a way to escape from everything,” Dugan said. “And to spend time with God and have fun at the same time, no distractions.
Asked what she thought about the famous TV show coming five years ago and helping the camp, Dugan said, “I think that was amazing, because I had seen how Paul and Cyndy Teas were working so hard to get this camp going and I thought that it was the nicest thing anyone had ever done.”
For more information about the camp visit www.campbarnabas.org
