By BARBARA GREEN
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It’s a beautiful summer day in Texas. Kids are fishing, canoeing, making crafts and singing silly songs. It’s all part of a typical day at summer camp, but for the special needs campers at Charis Hills it’s a unique opportunity to just be a regular kid.
Charis Hills is nestled across 100 acres of beautiful wooded and rolling hills outside Sunset. Opened in 2009 by Rand and Colleen Southard, the couple had been in the camp business since 1983, and while they had been dealing with special needs children for years, they had a desire to provide a place for what they call the under served population of youngsters with autism.
They explain Charis is Greek for grace and acceptance, so the name Charis Hills seemed perfect for a place where everyone is accepted for who God made them.
Looking back
Rand Southard can look back to exactly when he knew helping children was going to be the passion of his life. At five years old he became an amputee after his left leg was removed just below the knee due to a birth defect. As a disabled child he knew first hand the pain of not being picked for the baseball team and not being included.
As a youngster Southard went to Texas Lions Camp, the world’s largest camp for children with disabilities that welcomes those with lost limbs, the deaf and blind. He recalls it being the first place where he saw children who looked like him.
Southard didn’t want to go at first, but little did he know it would become a life-changing experience. He attended the Kerrville camp for two summers and after graduation from high school he returned as a counselor for two summers. It was a time that decided his future.