The day Lindsey Reeves dropped off her then 6-year-old daughter at camp still brings tears to her eyes.
Feeling nervous and unsure of what lay ahead, she says what happened next changed their lives.
“I will remember this day for the rest of my life,” recalled Reeves. “It was so powerful. We pulled up to camp, and a kid came up to greet Selah. He had skin grafts on his arms and face. She looked at him and looked at me and then back at him. She said, ‘You look just like me. We have the same skin!’
“I think it was the first time she saw someone that looked like her. She saw similar scars that were openly uncovered.
“It normalized her skin for her, and that is very powerful to feel normal in your own skin.”
That was seven years ago.
Camp Hope started in 1989 and is a three-day experience for burn survivors ages 6 to 16. A team of medical professionals from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, along with adult burn survivors, local firefighters and emergency medical services personnel, volunteer to create activities to promote physical and emotional healing for the children.
The overnight camp is held each year at the William P. Ridley 4-H Center in Columbia, Tennessee.
Today, Selah is 13 and looks forward to attending camp every summer.
The teen, who at 14 months old was burned by scalding water while climbing into a sink, once covered her entire right leg prior to attending her first camp. She endured countless procedures. More are expected.
“Coming to camp was actually life-altering for me,” said the rising eighth grader. “Being here made me feel normal. And it made my desire to be a burn surgeon even stronger.
“I count down the days on my phone until the next camp. I put it on there when I leave camp. It’s the best time of the year; well, besides Christmas! That one is hard to beat,” she said, giggling.
Even when Selah’s family moved away from Middle Tennessee to Wisconsin and Florida, her family brought her to camp every summer.
“I think it speaks volumes of how impactful camp is and how important it has been for her self-esteem and development,” said Reeves, Selah’s mother.
Thomas Zobel, a longtime camp volunteer and counselor, has been involved with the camp since 2015, the same year a backyard brush fire led to injuries to his left arm, chest and face.
Unable to return to work while recovering, he searched for something to occupy his time.
“It’s hard to explain,” said Zobel, 52. “It’s moments throughout the camp experience that you see the growth and relaxing. They are not judged and not looked at funny. They get to enjoy others and camp events without the worry that someone may be talking about them or staring. They get to have fun and be kids.
“They grow in their confidence, and that’s big. My hope for them is to continue to grow and become valued and successful members of society with no second thoughts of being different.”
The camp, with help from community donations, has grown from a handful of campers in the first years to nearly 40.
Camp director Brittni Davis wants to reach more children. It takes about 30 adults to keep the camper to counselor ratio low to ensure participants have 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 support.
While interacting with the campers is a highlight for Davis, who has been involved with the camp for 11 years, she also looks forward to reading the parent surveys.
“To see the number of parents who share how the camp impacted them has been rewarding,” Davis said. “One mom shared that bringing her child to camp helped her as much as it did her child. As a matter of fact, she realized she hadn’t completely dealt with the trauma of the accident. She said it changed her life and prompted her to take the next steps in her own healing.
“We have one patient whose family moved to Washington (state), and they fly him in each year and stay in the area so he can experience what the camp offers. That tells me we are doing the right things. That is why I keep doing what I do.”
Brittany Butler, mom to camper Logan, is thrilled there is a place her son can enjoy being confident with the “battle wounds” she calls her son’s burn injuries.
She said it helps to see her son’s experience through the photos shared daily from camp.
“I could make a full album of all the photos. They all are having such a fun time, and it’s refreshing to see. The camp has impacted us both in such a positive way,” Butler said.
“Dropping him off used to hurt,” she admitted. “But last year, he didn’t even say goodbye! He was just gone. The eagerness for him to get there is exciting for me to see.”
This is Logan’s third year of camp.
“Camp is fun, and I look forward to coming,” said Logan, 8. “You know what else? We get to have snacks before bed,” he said with a big grin.
His mom said the camp’s name fits perfectly: “It doesn’t just give the kids hope; it gives the parents hope, too, that they are going to outshine what happened to them.”
