Happy Campers Aren’t Just the Kids at Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp in Santa Barbara

What started as a reluctant volunteer gig as a photographer turned into an annual labor of love for David Powdrell, a Carpinteria resident and longtime shooter around town, who plays keyboards and cowbell with The Nombres and has a day job as a CPA.

A friend called 15 years ago, “and asked if I’d drive to UCSB to photograph the Junior Wheelchair Sports Camp, a camp for kids that I knew absolutely nothing about,” shared Powdrell. He reluctantly agreed, but he said he was “confident that these kids would be sad, mad, and perhaps miserable.”

Powdrell continued, “I was completely wrong! The kids were happy, grateful, smiling, laughing, and fun! After an hour of photographing that Monday morning 15 years ago, I called my wife and asked her to cancel all my business appointments. I would be photographing these amazing kids for the entire week, hoping to fill their scrapbooks and give them digital photographs to share with friends and family living outside the area. In the course of the week, they would go on to accomplish incredible acts of courage, make lifelong friends, and smile and laugh with gratitude in their eyes.”