Focus Magazine of SWFL Swimsuit Heat Wave

Dream Oaks Camp By Bre Jones Mulock Photography by Rob Knight Tucked beneathe the shade of towering oak trees and serenaded with streams of laughter, lies a peaceful utopia where kids who use wheelchairs ride horses, children with visual impairments sweep paint brushes across masterpieces and patients with cancer swap doctor’s appointments for a canoe trip down the Manatee River. Dream Oaks Camp, offering an exceptional camping experience for children with special needs and chronic illnesses ages 7 – 17, stretches out across several pristine acres in Manatee County and serves as the only camp in the Tampa Bay Area offering a permanent site for residential, day and weekend camping programs throughout the year for these children. Rumbling down the dirt road to the check-in center, most children can barely wait to leap out of their cars and bid farewell to their parents. “Usually Marty has to be coaxed out of the truck when we go places,” says Daniel, a Bradenton parent. “When I pull into the camp parking lot and park, Marty is opening up the door before I shut the engine off. A smile covers his face from the time he spots the first person. When I pick him up, he’s still wearing that same smile.” Dashing up to greet friends and loved counselors, campers can let go of school, treatment and routine at Dream Oaks, which has served more than 4,000 individuals during the 12 years it has welcomed campers. Seven barrier-free cabins dot the campus. Sunlight filters through the trees setting butterflies aglow. Low flames crackle from a firepit where the nostalgic, sweet scent of roasting marshmellows warms the afternoon air. The camp has blossomed as a living dream for Bradenton attorney Eddie Mulock, a triple-transplant survivor with a wicked sense of humor and a self-professed weakness for brightly-colored neckties. Mulock could not erase the images of the children he saw battling illnesses and adversity sheltered behind hospital walls. After surviving a heart transplant in 1995, Mulock – who later underwent both kidney and liver transplants as well—wondered when these children could shut out the treatments and therapy to enjoy the carefree musings of being a kid. His ponderings bloomed into a life mission. Barely out of the hospital himself, Mulock formed in 1996 the Foundation for Dreams, a non- profit organization that funds his creation Dream Oaks Camp. In August 2000, the Foundation for Dreams formed a collaborative partnership, which allowed the Foundation to build Dream Oaks Camp on several acres of Camp Flying Eagle, thereby utilizing existing facilities while focusing on renovating and building new facilities. With colorful pinwheels spinning at the entrance, Mulock’s dream came true in 2001 as Dream Oaks welcomed

Focus Magazine of SWFL Swimsuit Heat Wave | Page 105