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Basketball Camp Shows Participants ‘No Limits’
< < Back to basketball-camp-shows-participants-no-limitsWhile many college students will be focusing on part-time jobs or internships during their summer break, one Ohio University Lancaster student will turn his attention to running a basketball skills camp for the second time.
Cody Sarensen came up with the idea for the No Limits Basketball Camp last spring and organized the summertime camp in about a month. Around 60 participants, both with and without disabilities, took part in the camp.
Sarensen says it proved to him that the area needed such a camp.
"I knew they didn't have a huge basketball program. We do have a very good Special Olympics basketball team in Fairfield County, but I knew there wasn't a main basketball camp and I just wanted to be able to give the kids the experience to be part of something and experience what it's like to be part of the group," said Sarensen.
This time around, he says, he's had a whole year to prepare for the program, which will run during the evenings of July 9-11 on OU's Lancaster campus. Already, he expects around 100 participants, ages 9 to 21, to register.
Sarensen was honored with and Ohio Public Images Award of Merit in March for his organization of the No Limits project and his work promoting awareness of people with developmental disabilities. He's no stranger to recognition: in February, Sarensen was named the Youth Hero at the Fairfield County American Red Cross Heroes breakfast.
The OU-L Organizational Communications major will be a senior in the fall. Sarensen says ultimately, he would like to expand the basketball camp to other communities, perhaps even statewide.
"We've had a lot of individuals from central Ohio and some from Logan and Hocking County and Pickaway and Licking counties and what not," said Sarensen. "There's been campers coming from that area and if it continues to grow as it has been, I will definitely be looking forward to that for the future."