Burn Camp provides support, fun for pediatric burn patients
FOMBELL — On a hot Monday afternoon, after dutifully taking their swimming tests, just over a dozen kids lined up eagerly to rocket down the pool slide and jump into the pool at Camp Kon-O-Kwee just over the county line in Beaver County.
As participants at Allegheny Health Network West Penn Hospital’s Burn Center summer camp, the children, all of whom have previously been treated for burn injuries, had the chance to spend a week having fun with their peers and gaining mentorship in a safe environment.
The five-day Burn Camp, typically held during the first week of June, is organized and hosted by volunteers, AHN staff and former campers who return to serve as counselors. Patients age 7-17 who were treated at the Burn Center in Pittsburgh — and who can range from as far away as State College, Ohio, and West Virginia — are invited to the camp each year. Held regularly for the past 35 years, the 2022 iteration of the camp is the first in-person version since the beginning of the pandemic.
The program helps pediatric burn patients meet new friends, participate in activities and learn to take positive risks, said Linda Leonard, director of the West Penn Burn Camp.
“It’s a safe space for the kids — whatever they say here, we’re not going to repeat,” Leonard said. “They can talk about their burns if they want to, or they don’t have to talk about their burns. They can talk about what their scars make them feel, or they don’t have to talk about it. No one here is going to stare at them, no one here is going to point, no one here is going to make fun of them. It’s a safe place.”
The theme of this year’s camp was “Imagine, Invent, Experiment, Inspire.” Campers participated in hands-on STEAM-related projects, including workshops from the Audobon Society of Western Pennsylvania’s Succop Nature Park, the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Carnegie Mellon University Girls of Steel robotics program.
During the past weekend, kids participated in a storytelling workshop from Steel City Storytellers and learned about the science of digesting food.
“I didn’t know how they would have it set up, I didn't know if it was completely all about burns, but it's really kind of peaceful,” said camper Madalyn Helms, 15, of Uniontown. “It’s nice to hang around people who know what you’ve been through.”
Activities director Rachael Simon said the “main point” of the camp was focused on fun for the participating kids.
“We like to build relationships with kids,” Simon said. “There are some kids that do develop more mentor relationships with some of the counselors.”
The camp also allows the kids, who may have had traumatizing experiences, to have a positive experience with their peers, she said.
“Burn injuries can be very disfiguring, so there’s a very long trajectory of continued care with multiple surgeries. There’s also just kind of dealing with the process of somebody noticing that you look differently, and how do others respond to that,” Simon said. “When you’re surrounded by all of the kids who have gone through a similar experience, you have that peer support.”
Both children and counselors often return to the program year after year, Simon said. This year’s class of 14 children was more made up of new attendees, though some had participated in past years or in last year’s virtual Burn Camp.
“We have this longstanding tradition of counselors who have been with us for 20 years. They started when they were 10, and they’re still counselors today and they’re in their 30s,” she said. “There are strong family roots to the Burn Camp community.”
One of the campers, Patricia Nelson, 17, of Johnsonburg, has attended since she was 8 years old.
“It’s really unique. Where I live, I live in a really rural area, and I’m like (one of) the only kids who’s ever gotten severely burned, where it is noticeable. It’s really cool seeing other people that relate to you,” she said. “It kind of just lets you know that you’re not the only one that has gone through this thing. And it kind of helps you take the fact that you have scars, and you can’t get rid of them, but it makes you who you are.”
