Camp Daniel, founded in 1996, is a 501 (c)3 organization located in Athelstane, WI, 75 miles north of Green Bay. The organization is dedicated to serving the disability community of northeast WI and the Upper Peninsula through camps, homes and daily programs.
Camp Daniel was named in memory of Daniel Piantine, son and brother to the founders. Daniel was born with a rare neuromuscular disease, which caused him to use a wheelchair to move, an iron lung to breathe, and others to help with every daily care needed. He grew up in a home environment where his disability was celebrated as making him unique, and his abilities and inabilities were seen as opportunities to affect the lives of other people. Daniel was a published writer and an accomplished songwriter and musician. He traveled for several years teaching disability awareness in schools, service organizations and churches. Daniel’s message was that all people are created equal and with purpose and can affect the world they live in by using the gifts and talents with which they are endowed. It was Daniel’s dream to create an accessible community in which people with disabilities could live in a loving, family style setting where their gifts and talents could be used to help others in the community. Daniel imparted this dream to his family upon his death at the age of just 22, and they have been working towards offering the opportunities Dan desired to all who wish to participate.
