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Camp helps visually impaired

A camper looks up from his work, turns an ear toward the stairs.

"There's the bus!" he says. "And there's the bus door!"He's hearing the bus and the swish of its door from the basement floor of the Tamaqua Community Art Center.Somehow, he's separated its sound from the steady traffic noise from the trucks and cars moving along Pine Street outside."It's true that sometimes when people are visually impaired, another sense is stronger," said volunteer Annette Ritzko, Coaldale, who'll be a senior at Marion High School this year. "I really enjoy volunteering here; I'm learning so much."As part of Camp Sight, a summer day camp run by Community Services for Sight, Hazelton, campers from 10-18 visited the Tamaqua Community Art Center for a pottery class. Craig Bulger, Black Diamond Pottery, instructed the campers along with a number of volunteers. Community Services for Sight Director Lori Lesante said that the organization provides services for blind and visually-impaired people in southern Luzerne, Schuylkill and Carbon counties."I studied social work and I've been with them for 17 years," Lesante said. "It doesn't feel like a job; I just love what I do."For more information, go to

www.communityservicesforsight.org or call 570-455-0421.

LISA PRICE/TIMES NEWS Volunteer Annette Ritzko of Coaldale, center, helps campers Kamrein Havrilla, Luzerne, and Miranda McLauglin, Wilkes-Barre, begin to shape their clay.