06/02/2022
***THIS IS NOT THE OFFICIAL PAGE OF CAMP AWESUM***
This page is owned by me, Dr. Glenis Benson; I WAS synonymous with Camp AweSum, as I was a founding board member and the de facto director for the last 16 years. I set up this page and administered it for all things Camp AweSum.
I am no longer part of Camp AweSum.
Stay tuned if you’d like to hear the story.
UCCI, the owner of Moon Beach, has, in effect, executed what I will characterize as a hostile takeover of Camp AweSum. Glenn Svetnicka, who was the Executive Director of UCCI, in an authoritarian move, took Camp AweSum Youth camp from Moon Beach and dropped it at a far inferior site on Green Lake, one Daycholah Center, in what one can only understand as a financial move because it was NOT done with the autistic campers in mind. The new site is on a noisy lake complete with unpredictable fireworks, no beach but rather an abundance of duck w**d and zebra mussels, and to top it off, the site has a road running right through camp. Because this site is abhorrent for autistics, I explained that I could not support it but Glenn Svetnicka blackmailed Camp AweSum saying that if youth camp did not occur at Daycholah Center there simply would be no more youth camp. Some within Camp AweSum capitulated, I did not.
This move further eroded my confidence in UCCI as an organization. I had been concerned about the health of the UCCI organization for some time but on Dec. 3, 2021 I wrote a letter to the UCCI Board expressing grave concerns for the ways things were being run, after all, if UCCI floundered so would Camp AweSum. I expressed significant concerns about the nepotism that was rampant within the organization and in effect, exposed in print, the most poorly kept secret of the organization, the years long affair between Glenn Svetnicka, the Executive Director and Tiffany Ludwig, the Director of Marketing. I explained that this affair had done irreparable damage to the organization (a religious organization that relentlessly beats the ‘boundaries’ drum was being led by someone who ignored his and the UCCI’s own preachings). Ten days later, without so much as a phone call, I received a scathing letter of dismissal. UCCI shot the messenger, or, as one camp dad said, “in effect they have removed the batteries from the smoke detector in the middle of a raging fire.” THE FIRE STILL RAGES as is evidenced by the pleadings for money, for volunteers, for lifeguards, but the smoke detector is no longer wailing. The organization is flatlining, so they took the only profitable and hugely successful program, Camp AweSum and stripped it of its leader without regard for the impact on autistics and their families. Families and volunteers wrote letters of appeal, one parent made a petition signed by 270 people to have me reinstated, but UCCI could not admit their error so remain steadfast. Many people have withdrawn their financial support, but that which immediately affects the camps is the loss of the only autism expert, and many of the experienced volunteers, many of which have had a decade plus of experience with autistics. I trained all personnel and conducted the onsite inservices. What remains are people of good-will but without autism expertise. Camp AweSum was a success because the philosophy I taught and implemented was cutting edge for autism; it was no accident why we were considered a refuge like none other for autistics and their families. I believe UCCI sees Camp AweSum as a cash cow and care not about the families who have been hurt by this decision, the families that dare not attend without me at the helm. So no, Camp AweSum is anything but awesome. UCCI and Glenn Svetnicka destroyed the premiere autism camp in Wisconsin; quite an accomplishment! Questions can be forwarded to [email protected]. Those questioning my motives may wish to read my correspondence with UCCI. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/133AMdITF9UqIvnNItlfT_SWgr6QeJguj?usp=sharing
