Oaks-winning owner Politi races Camp Akeela for a cause
When 3-year-old Camp Akeela won her first race Feb, 26, Nina Politi was doing homework in her bedroom in Columbus, Ohio.
Camp Akeela was running at Fair Grounds, her first start on turf since a neck loss on closing day at Saratoga. Based in Kentucky and Louisiana, the Tom Amoss trainee had been forced to run on dirt as a result of the turf woes at Churchill Downs and Fair Grounds.
"She ran a 16 on the sheets in her first route race," said owner Joel Politi, Nina’s father. "We’d been waiting to run her on turf since Saratoga."
Sent off just shy of 4-1, Camp Akeela turned in the performance her connections had been waiting for, winning the maiden special weight by 1 3/4 lengths.
Up in her room, Nina had missed the race, getting downstairs just as the filly was being led into the winner’s circle. She and her family watched the replay. They watched it again. And again. And again.
"I hope she’s good," Politi said. "I really want her to be good."
Hardly an unusual sentiment for any horse owner, especially one who has already gotten a taste of success at the highest level. Politi raced 2019 Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress, and now his whole family – wife Julie and their four daughters – have a special incentive to root for Camp Akeela's success as do the owners and staff of the filly's namesake and families with children on the autism spectrum.
Politi acquired the daughter of Laoban for $65,000 at the 2021 Keeneland September yearling sale and chose the Camp Akeela moniker for the filly out of Woodman mare Tree Chopper because she was bred in New York.
"This filly was beautiful and came from the Northeast, like Camp Akeela, so we thought she would represent them very well," Politi said of the camp that Nina attended for eight years. He donates a portion of the filly's earnings to Camp Akeela so that other children can experience what Nina did.
"I was really happy when she won," Nina said recently during a Zoom call. "When I went to Camp Akeela for the first time, I didn’t really have any idea of what it was going to be like. I’ve gone there now for so many years, and each time when I come back, I feel like I’ve gained new experiences and grown so much as a person. Without the camp, I probably wouldn’t have as much confidence. I probably wouldn’t be able to go to high school and be successful. And I know that if I choose to go to college, I’ll know how to do basic, independent things that a lot of kids struggle with."
Camp Akeela was established in 2008 by Eric and Debbie Sasson. Though neither had worked with autistic children before opening the camp, they had backgrounds in education and counseling respectively, and both had grown up going to and working at camps, and at a camp is where they met.
"Lots of camps are known for being wonderful places," Eric Sasson said. "They’re nurturing, but they weren’t really serving the quirky kids. Those were doing OK, but they weren’t thriving."
Elements characteristic of a typical camp – schedule changes, group sings, multiple bunkmates – can challenge neurodivergent children. Camp Akeela is designed with an awareness of those challenges and creates time and space for the campers who need it. The counselors recognize that changes in routine can cause anxiety for the campers, and they work with the children accordingly.
Camp Akeela is also a place where the campers feel, many for the first time, like they belong.
"Most of our campers go to public school, and it’s a lot of work to hold it together," Sasson said. "They don’t get invited to parties; they’re not on teams. But when they get to camp, they can be themselves. They know that the other campers and the counselors get it.
"That feeling of belonging and comfort, and the social coaching that we can provide, can be life-changing."
Nina has experienced those changes first-hand.
The teenager who had always been afraid of heights now goes ziplining and participates in activities on high ropes courses. She plays on an intramural volleyball team. She's started taking riding lessons.
"She’s grown every time she comes back from camp, mentally and physically," her father said. "She learns to do things we could never have gotten her to do. She got over her fear of dogs.”
"Kids are unafraid to be themselves," she said. "At the beginning of the session, some kids wouldn’t sing in our circle at first, and by the end of the session, they’re belting their hearts out. Kids that wouldn’t touch the ropes course end up climbing up into the trees."
She added, "I went into the summer thinking that I would need to develop a whole new skill set. But I realized that the needs of neurodivergent kids are similar to ours. We just have to be extra attuned, a good listener, empathetic, thoughtful, all skills that I should carry into the rest of my life.”
Both of Nina’s parents are physicians, and the family is financially comfortable enough to own racehorses and to send Nina to Camp Akeela. They know that there are many families with neurodivergent children who can’t afford the nearly $9,000 price tag for three weeks.
The camp was founded as a for-profit enterprise, and in 2010, the Sassons founded a foundation named CampLauncher to augment the financial aid that the camp already offered.
Marissa Siegman learned about CampLauncher when she was filling out the Camp Akeela paperwork for her son Max. Shortly thereafter, she became CampLauncher’s development director.
"It’s hard to find places where our kids feel like they’re understood, places that are designed for them," she said. "Eric and Debbie are sensitive to the need for increased access, and they know that families with neurodivergent children often experience financial stress."
Camp Akeela is part of a network of camps served by CampLauncher. Families apply for admission directly to an individual camp; camps then refer the families to CampLauncher. The foundation is supported by donations, which can be earmarked for specific camps, and annual “Launchathon” events during camp sessions, during which campers participate in a chosen activity (basketball, swimming, running et al.) and raise money through pledge campaigns.
"Going to Camp Akeela helped me to find who I am as a person and to become who I am," Nina reflected. "It’s one of the only camps that is specifically designed for people like me. So I would like to see more camps for kids like us, and because it’s very expensive, a lot of people can’t go, which is sad."
On Saturday, Camp Akeela made her stakes debut, fading to fifth in the Allen Black Cat LaCombe Memorial Stakes after striking the front mid-stretch. That was good enough for a $1,500 check and thus a donation to CampLauncher.
"We hope Camp Akeela raises a lot of money for scholarships," Joel said. "And maybe the publicity she gets will encourage other people to donate. Just as importantly, we hope that through raising awareness of the camp, some kids, some families will learn about it, and they’ll get to have an experience that they never would have had if it hadn’t been for Camp Akeela the horse."