June 25, 2009

Nostalgia- Burn Camp ³

by Wendy • featured, Notes From A Fire Chaplain

I’ve been to a lot of camps.  I grew up going to outdoor ed. camp, horse camp, church camp, and all kinds of in between camp.  I love, love, love camp!  In the summer of 2000 I had heard about a burn camp outside of San Antonio and I knew right away that I wanted to go and be a camp counselor.  I was so excited when I heard back from the camp that they wanted me also and they wanted me to be their camp chaplain.  So off I went to be with other burn survivors but most of these survivors were little ones.

That week at burn camp was one of the best times of my life.  I met some of the kindest, most compassionate people.  I also met some kids who were extremely courageous and defied some incredible odds.  Many of the children had been burned by abusers and knowing that just broke my heart but yet their spirits were not broken.  I learned so many life lessons during that week of camp and I knew that the following year I just had to go back.

In 2001 instead of just going to one burn camp, I ended up spending most of my summer at three separate burn camps in three different states.  The first camp was the one I had been to the previous year in San Antonio.  The next camp I went to was in Northern California.  That year, the camp decided to take the children on a road trip up the coast of California and into Oregon.  What an incredible journey that week proved to be.  We camped out at firehouses, race-car tracks, colleges, and an old motel along the route.  Many of those kids had the same story as the kids in Texas.  Their burns were the cause of neglect and/or abuse.  All of the kids were from California and yet most of them had never seen the ocean, or stepped onto a fire truck, or hugged a teddy bear.  Again, these kids proved resilient and free-spirited.  Traveling the 700 miles in 6 days with nearly 50 kids was a phenomenal journey.  I was even voted the best camp counselor!

The next camp I visited was in Oklahoma at a place called Dry Gulch.  It was a church camp facility that looked like a western town.  It really looked like a movie set and it just blew me away.  They had a train that circled the camp, a zoo with a bear that had a pet cat, a petting zoo, wild buffalo, water slides and a huge lake.  What was so neat about this camp were the clowns that came in and stayed in full gear the whole entire day.  They even swam in their costumes and makeup.  While a lot of people say they don’t like clowns, I gained a lot of respect for the people who came out to the camp and sweated it out in their full dress.  It was 100 degrees on most days and yet there they were smiling and joking with the kids.  I also got to witness children who had severe disabilities because of their burns do things they probably never could have imagined doing.  One child with no fingers or toes scaled a rock wall with his camp counselor.  Another child who was also missing fingers learned to play the guitar.  It was inspiring on so many levels.

It’s hot summer days like today that make me think about those camps and how much I miss the kids and the experience of being around little souls who can change your life with a story and a smile.  I hope one day that I can have the chance to go back to camp again.  I would love to have just one more week sleeping in bunk beds, listening to the crickets, doing arts and crafts, and singing camp songs.