BIDDEFORD — A new summer camp for children with autism will be offered this year in Biddeford.

Finding the Pieces, a two-week pilot program, will run concurrently this summer with the city’s existing children’s Safari day camp.

The camp’s concept was developed by Biddeford City Councilor Robert Quattrone, whose son, Bryce, falls on the autism spectrum.

“I enrolled (Bryce) last year in Safari camp, the Bideford summer camp, and I just found that to no fault of their own, they were not equipped to handle my boy,” Quattrone said Monday. “Autistic kids have different demands than other kids.”

Quattrone said children with autism typically need more specialized attention than most summer camps can currently provide, including counselors who are trained to work with them in a one-on-one format.

Quattrone said he began to research ways for his son, and others like him, to enjoy the same experience children without autism get to have year after year.

“I didn’t want my son to miss out on summer camp experience, so I started doing some research,” he said. “I know my son’s not the only one who can’t have a camp experience.”

He said a similar camp in Farmington served as inspiration for Finding the Pieces, and that the University of Maine Farmington’s influence helped that camp to grow. As a result, Quattrone said, Finding the Pieces will partner with the University of New England to recruit counselors for the camp. 

Graduate students in occupational therapy will pay for a class specific to the camp, and will serve as counselors as part of their “field work,” according to Quattrone.

“They’ll work at the camp so we won’t have to pay them,” he said. “It’s basically free staffing and it’ll also help us keep it at a one-to-one ratio.”

Quattrone said all parties benefit from the camp: the city, the parents and, of course, the children.

“I think the incoming kindergarten class has about 25 percent of students who have special needs of some kind, not necessarily all autism, but it’s not like this problem is going away anytime soon,” he said. “They’re all going to be doing the same things (as Safari camp): playing on the schoolyard, perhaps going on a field trip or two.”

Mayor Alan Casavant will hold a press conference about the program today at 1 p.m. in the Council Chambers in City Hall. Quattrone said the cost will be free for parents, and he hopes to start fundraising for the few paid positions that need to be created.

He’s hoping parents of autistic children will take advantage of the new and unique opportunity.

“I hope parents will take advantage of this,” he said. “This is exactly what a summer camp for autistic kids could be like.”

— Staff Writer Alan Bennett can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or abennett@journaltribune.com.