
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 10, 1995                   TAG: 9506120041
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SPEEDWELL                                LENGTH: Medium

GIRL WILL ATTEND CAMP AFTER ALL

It took a member of Congress to get 13-year-old Carla Howell enrolled in camp at the Southwest Virginia 4-H Center.

Now, the Wythe County girl will be able to attend the camp near Abingdon starting Tuesday.

Her mother, Ella Howell of Speedwell, filed a complaint Monday with the U.S. Department of Agriculture claiming that Carla was denied the right to attend the camp because she has cerebral palsy.

A similar suit had been filed in 1993 by another Wythe County mother, Judy Taylor, to get her son, David, who also has cerebral palsy, into the camp. That suit never went through, because camp officials decided that David would be able to handle the camp activities without having an aide assigned to him.

That was not the case with Carla, and the Agriculture Department quickly ruled that there was no discrimination in her case. The camp actually provides more facilities for handicapped campers than the law requires.

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, had asked the department to expedite its ruling on Howell's complaint because the camp was due to start soon. Howell also had charged sex discrimination, because David Taylor had been allowed to attend while her daughter would not be.

Both Wythe County youngsters use wheelchairs, but David does not use it full-time, as does Carla. She has to be transferred from wheelchair to bed, for example, and requires someone to help her.

Howell said she learned just last week that aides would have to be provided to assist Carla, and she had no time to find any in time for camp.

When Boucher learned that Carla could attend the camp with an aide, he had his staff contact community groups and service organizations to try to find people for the job.

"We were able to secure the assistance of three individuals who will take turns assisting Carla while she is at camp next week," he said. "We have also contacted community groups who are providing money to offset the cost to the 4-H of having three extra people at camp."

Joe Shoemaker, Boucher's communications director in Washington, D.C., said Friday that the volunteer aides did not want their identities public.

by CNB