Rucker: Disabled Kids Deserve Camp

By Gabriella Boston (Contact)
The Washington Times
Originally published 04:45 a.m., August 26, 2009,
Updated 08:08 a.m., August 26, 2009


"You gotta make some stances and take some chances" and "You gotta live and learn so you can learn to live."

Those are lyrics from the Darius Rucker (aka Hootie from rock band Hootie and the Blowfish) smash-hit country solo album, "Learn to Live," which just landed its third No. 1 single ("Alright") on Billboard's Hot Country Chart.

But they're also prophetic words for another of Mr. Rucker's passions: helping educate and care for children with multiple and severe disabilities in his hometown of Charleston, S.C.

"I have a cousin with a 6-year-old child who's severally handicapped, and when I found out that children with severe disabilities don't have a place to go to school, it just saddened me," Mr. Rucker said during a recent phone interview.

"I wanted to do something to improve the quality of life for these children," said Mr. Rucker, a father of three.

South Carolina, like all other states, is mandated by federal law to provide education to all children. Mr. Rucker and others say children with disabilities need much more than the 30 minutes per week of occupational-physical therapy that public schools provide, along with daily special education.

So, Mr. Rucker teamed up with Pam Sloat and other staff members at Pattison's Academy (www.pattisonsacademy.org), which provides five-week summer camps for children with severe disabilities in the Charleston area. The organization is named after Ms. Sloat's daughter Pattison, 6, who has multiple disabilities, including spastic quadriplegia, severe cognitive disabilities and vision impairment.

The group - with Mr. Rucker's financial and promotional help - is now planning to open a school in the fall of 2010 that will provide therapy and education for up to 78 children with severe disabilities.

"We want to have everything these kids need under one roof," Ms. Sloat said over the phone from a Charleston water park, where she and her other daughters, Amelia, 8, and Marian, 2 (neither of whom has disabilities), were spending an afternoon with Pattison in a specially made, waterproof wheelchair. "Because occupational and physical therapy need to go hand in hand with educational goals."

Ms. Sloat is working on Pattison's cognitive abilities - specifically teaching her decision-making - by training her to move her head a certain way to indicate "no" and a different way to indicate "yes" in response to questions.

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