GORE — While other campers at Camp Grey Squirrel painted T-shirts inside an air conditioned building, 13-year-old Garrett Horsechief was outside, pitching stones in a rock pond and feeling its cool water.

Garrett needs several breaks from painting because he gets bored easily, said Laurinda Crow, a volunteer who has worked closely with Garrett since the camp session began earlier this week.

The four teen boys attending the camp this week at the United Methodist Boys Ranch near Gore thrive on such attention and direction. Camp Grey Squirrel is a residential camp for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. This is the only week the camp is in session, though director Daphne Hamon said she hopes to raise enough money to keep the camp going a second year.

“This is the first camp in Oklahoma specifically designed for meet the recreational and social skills of kids with autism spectrum disorders.

Autism is a complex disability that affects social interaction and communication, according to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Web site. Because of its complexity and varying symptoms, health care providers refer to autism as a spectrum disorder.

Daphne and Fred Hamon of Cookson know the condition firsthand. Their 13-year-old son Kyle was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, a mild form of autism spectrum disorder.

“Our son was diagnosed at 4 and was never accepted in other camps,” Fred Hamon said. Asperger kids are very intelligent, and you may not notice that he has it.”

While Hamon talked, Kyle painted the base of his clay sculpture a Kelly green.

“It’s clay, but it’s painted to look like grass,” Kyle said.

Meanwhile, other campers had begun painting T-shirts.

Kyle’s rejection at other summer camps motivated the Hamons to start their own camp for autistic children. The past week-long session was the culmination of five years of dreaming, planning and training, Daphne Hamon said.

The camp drew three boys from the Tahlequah, Cookson and Muskogee areas and one from New Mexico. They range in age from 13 to 18.

The camp also has a staff and volunteers, including two nurses and a doctor on-call, to give each camper individual attention.

“The challenge has been in coordinating activities,” Daphne Hamon said. “Their attention spans are all different. One camper functions at a lower level than the others.”

Hamon said the camp offers traditional activities such as hayrides, campfires, crafts and horseback riding.