PACK Hopes Community Keeps Camp Going

NEW PORT RICHEY - Instead of packing it in, PACK is hoping businesses and individual donors will make up for the loss of a $50,000 state grant for an annual summer camp for youths with disabilities.

The Pasco Association for Challenged Kids has been putting on the summer camp for more than a decade.

Paula and Barry Cohen, parents of an autistic child, formed the nonprofit group in 1997. They were frustrated that the county had no summer programs for children with disabilities.

Most years, state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, had gotten a grant for PACK's monthlong camp included in the annual state budget. This year, however, tax revenue is down and lawmakers tightened the purse strings.

"This year, due to all the budget cuts, we will not get any funding at all from the state," Barry Cohen said.

PACK also counts on fundraisers and some fees to supplement the state grant.

Its annual Bowlathon starts at 2 p.m. Saturday at Lane-Glo Bowl, 8631 Old County Road 54, in the Seven Springs-Trinity area.

In the meantime, the group has cobbled together enough money to stretch the 2008 summer camp to almost three weeks. The camp will be held weekdays, June 23 through July 11 (except July 4 and 7), at River Ridge Presbyterian Church, 9230 Ridge Road.

But that means PACK would still have to turn away some of the 55 youngsters planning to take part if replacement funds don't come through, Cohen said, because the group doesn't have the money for a fourth week of camp.

"The waiting list just keeps getting longer," Cohen said.

The organizers must find an additional $10,000 somewhere, somehow.

"We need lots of help from the public and local business," Cohen said.

"I'm trying to think positive" despite the shaky economy.

Fasano has pledged to "put the word out" to recruit donors, said Greg Giordano, the senator's chief legislative assistant.

More information is available by calling (727) 372-9516, sending an e-mail to pascopack@verizon.net or visiting the group's Web site, www.pascopack.org.

Although the summer camp will endure in some form this year, funding for 2009 might be even harder to predict.

Fasano will submit the state grant request again, Giordano said, but he will have to wait and see if budget conditions improve and more tax revenue flows into state coffers.

"I try not to worry too far in advance," Cohen said. "We'll just keep plugging away. We'll keep trying."