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The WMU Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies sponsors the annual Sports Education Camp for Students with Visual Impairments. A junior camp and senior camp is held on the WMU campus.
Over the course of two decades, the sports camps, created by Dr. Paul Ponchillia, WMU professor emeritus of blindness and low vision studies, have become a national model for other communities. The junior camps offer a series of clinics designed to teach younger students fundamental athletic skills, introducing children to bowling, goalball, gymnastics, swimming, track and field, and wrestling. The senior camp's clinics teach older students intermediate athletic skills in all of the activities listed above plus cycling, judo and power lifting.
Everything culminates in the Michigan State Games for Students with Visual Impairments, which offer an opportunity for students to compete as an individual or on a team.
