Posted July 23, 2020

For more than 20 years, Camp Rainbow has offered eight weeks of summer fun to residents of St. Edmond’s Home for Children in Rosemont. The facility, part of archdiocesan Catholic Social Services, supports children and youth with profound intellectual disabilities.

(Related: Read our feature story on this year’s Camp Rainbow.)

With COVID-19 posing a high level of risk to the medically fragile children, St. Edmond’s staff found new and creative ways to keep campers smiling — even creating their own in-house aquarium experience.

(All photos courtesy of Denise Clofine / St. Edmond’s Home for Children)

  • A resident of St. Edmond’s Home for Children in Rosemont enjoys a splash at Camp Rainbow, the home’s annual summer program. With COVID-19 risks, staff at the home — part of archdiocesan Catholic Social Services’ continuum of care for those with intellectual disabilities — revamped camp activities to ensure both safety and fun.

  • Staff at St. Edmond’s Home for Children in Rosemont created an in-house aquarium experience for residents, since COVID-19 risks prevented annual summer field trips.

  • A watermelon sprinkler provides a refreshing spritz for a participant at Camp Rainbow, an annual summer program for the residents of St. Edmond’s Home for Children in Rosemont.

  • A resident of St. Edmond’s Home for Children in Rosemont tries on a mermaid look at an aquarium experience created by staff of St. Edmond’s Home for Children as part of its annual Camp Rainbow.

  • Yasi, a resident of St. Edmond’s Home for Children, enjoys some tactile fun with a “worms in dirt” tray made of pasta and coffee grounds.

  • With COVID-19 restrictions preventing large gatherings, staff at St. Edmond’s Home for Children scaled down the facility’s annual July 4 bash, hosting a weeklong series of “mini-parades” instead.