Every summer, while most teachers are resting, Timothy Strozier is already at camp — and he has been for 27 years straight.
Strozier, an exceptional education teacher in the DeKalb County School District, spends his summers volunteering at Camp Hollywood, a program serving children and teens with physical and developmental disabilities. For nearly three decades, he has run the recreation class with one rule: every child participates, no exceptions.
“No matter what type of disability they have, whether it’s physical or whether they’re nonverbal, I try to adapt activities so everyone can feel a part of it,” Strozier said. “That’s what this is about.”
What keeps a man returning to the same camp, summer after summer, for 27 years? For Strozier, the answer is rooted in something personal.
“My mom is paralyzed from a stroke,” he said. “She was a fighter. She never gave up.” Growing up in a home shaped by disability taught him how to see people — not their limitations.
“I don’t look at them as, ‘This is the disability they have,'” he said. “I treat them as a normal human being.”
Campers notice the difference. Fourteen-year-old Olivia Frey, who has cerebral palsy and has attended the camp since age three, says Strozier stands apart from everyone else on staff.
“Most of the other staff rely on our name tags,” Frey said. “Him remembering your name without having to use that name tag is really important. I almost can’t imagine what camp would look like without Mr. Tim.”
Over 27 summers, Strozier has watched children grow into adults — and some still recognize him years later at the grocery store.
“‘Mr. Tim! Mr. Tim! I remember you from camp,'” he recalled. Those moments, he says, remind him exactly why he keeps showing up.
“I often think — if that was my child, what type of experience would I want them to have?” he said. “I want them to feel safe. I want them to feel welcome.”
After 27 summers, he is still delivering exactly that.
