When Leslie Wascom and Jessica Bonura founded Camp United in 2015, they wanted to create a space that was inclusive, where students of all abilities could build self-confidence and foster friendships during the summer break.
Fast-forward 15 years, and that’s exactly what they’ve built — and then some. After hosting sessions at various facilities throughout the parish, Camp United, also known as Camp UP, is finally getting a permanent home in Livingston Parish.
“I want our community and the whole state of Louisiana, not just Livingston Parish, to be able to come to a property that all kids can enjoy,” Wascom said.
The two women have 40 years of combined experience. Wascom has taught adapted physical education for 20 years, and Bonura is a special education teacher who has taught in the area of disabilities/autism for 20 years.
In the beginning of Camp Up, Bonura and Wascom only offered summer camp sessions. Today, they offer several camps throughout the year and have increased in the number of participants. Each session can accommodate 45 to 60 campers for ages 3 and up of any ability for four hours. Parents have the option to enroll their children in just one day at camp, or up to one week. Every camp is different with varying themes, such as “Theatre Camp” or “Jurassic Camp.”
Each camper is assigned a counselor, or “buddy,” and the camp also has a paraprofessional on site.
Mary Ballard of Denham Springs originally thought the camp, like the majority of inclusive camps, was only for children. That was not the case, though, with Bonura and Wascom’s model.
Ballard’s 29-year-old son, Christopher, who has Down syndrome, first attended Camp UP as a guest speaker in his early 20s. He has been going to the camp ever since then in various roles, such as a camper, speaker and peer role model.
“I send him sometimes as a camper and sometimes as a helper,” Ballard said.
Trust and faith in Camp UP
No matter the child’s strength or weakness, the goal of camp is to promote social integration and foster personal growth.
Camp UP hosts different indoor and outdoor activities, with one of the most popular being the water slides that the camp rents. Wascom described a time when a young camper in a wheelchair wanted to go down a water slide, and how, no matter what, the counselors were going to make it happen.
“People will say, ‘Well, how is he going to get up on the water slide?’ Well, we’re going to carry him,” Wascom said.
With the variety of activities, the goal for each one is to promote teamwork, good sportsmanship and movement. The new, permanent site at 20990 La. 42, Livingston, will have a zip line, walking trails, bonfire pits and more, all while being fully accessible.
“This will be unique and one of a kind,” Wascom said. “We want it to be handicap accessible for kids with and without disabilities.”
The timeline for building the site is not final, but Wascom said the camp is planning to host a community day in November at the site, thanks to its community partners.
Having a permanent camp location is exciting for the Ballards, because it means having the possibility of sending Christopher to overnight camp again, which is something he loved to attend but are hard to find. To send him to one overnight camp, the family had to drive several hours to the west side of Louisiana. While Christopher loved the experience, he aged out at 19 years old.
“It’s been 10 years since he’s been to an overnight camp,” Ballard said of her son. “This is needed in the area.”
Tears of joy
In addition to the permanent location, Camp Up is also adding its very-first session in Baton Rouge.
Next year, there will be two weeklong camps in Baker in June and July. This addition comes from combined efforts from the camp and The Magnolia Rose Foundation for Autism Acceptance, a Baton Rouge-based foundation that hosts events for neurotypical and neurodivergent children.
The foundation’s founder Miranda Georgetown Riley, of Baker, took her two children, 6-year-old Magnolia and 3-year-old DavidJames, to Camp UP for the first time this year.
During the experience, she cried tears of joy.
“You have to have so much trust and so much faith,” she said.
Georgetown Riley said other than Camp UP, there is no fully inclusive camps in the Greater Baton Rouge region.
“What she is doing, no one else is doing,” she said about Wascom. “Nobody has a fully inclusive camp.”
Seeing the success of Camp UP and working with Wascom inspired Georgetown Riley and her foundation to create the Baker sessions. The two groups are holding a charity golf tournament in April 2026 to raise funds for the new camps.
Consistency is a plus
Before Camp UP, Sarah Steudlein of Greenwell Springs was not aware of any type of camp that existed for children like Luke, her 12-year-old son with autism. When Steudlein brought Luke to Camp UP for the first time, the staff walked her through the day’s activities before leaving, which made a huge difference to her as a mother.