Clemson University Paralympic Soccer: Virtual Dinners at Camp for Veterans with Disabilities

Abstract

In transitioning a 3-day in-person soccer camp for veterans with disabilities to a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one of our greatest concerns was that veterans would lose the opportunity to establish social connections, which had heightened importance to this population because of the social isolation brought on by restrictions on social gatherings. During each of our virtual camps, we successfully carried out a virtual dinner in which meals were delivered to 20+ participants across 3 different time zones within 15 minutes of each other so that participants could enjoy visiting with each other and establishing friendships over dinner after a day of learning together in camp. In future in-person camps, we will utilize what we learned from the virtual dinners by having a student in charge of all meal logistics (a great programming experience and resume builder), and by having meals pre-ordered to further support the opportunity for networking.