Save Camp Eyabsut: A Burn Camp For Kids

By Rachel Belle

Listen
to Feature: Help Save A Summer Camp For Burn
Victims

Anyone who has ever gone to summer camp knows that it’s
is a magical place. It’s like its own universe full of
inside jokes and silly songs and when you get home and try
and tell your friends about camp, they never really
understand what you’re talking about. For the past 25
years North Bend’s Camp Eyabsut has been that place for
kids who’ve been badly burned and have the scars to prove
it. But on April 19th, without any warning, the Northwest
Burn Foundation cut funding, basically canceling camp, and
let organizers, campers and counselors know this through a
Facebook message.

Mickey Mclain, 23, is a camp counselor, and
firefighter, who’s attended Camp Eyabsut since she was 7-
years-old.

“I was pretty devastated because I know that this camp
means a lot to those kids who are burn survivors. It’s
kind of like Christmas for them because it’s a place where
they can be themselves and they can go swimming and do
whatever they want without having to worry about getting
made fun of. Especially since I was a camper and I know
how that feels to have a place where you can go and be
free for a week and not have to worry about people making
fun of your scars. When I was 7-years-old, I had a lot of
problems with my burn scar and just worried about it and
didn’t want other people to see it. So my mom did some
research and found out about Camp Eyabsut and I had a
great time. I was really shy at first. I remember one
night, one of the girls started talking about her burn
scar. That’s when I decided to start wearing shorts and
come out of my shell.”

Megan Canonica, 16, has gone to burn camp every summer
for the past eight years.

“I fell into a bathtub when I was five and it’s on both
my arms, my stomach, my back and both my legs.”

She looks forward to seeing her best friends at camp
every summer, and is afraid she won’t see them again if
camp is canceled.

“I was really confused because the email we got wasn’t
really clear. It just didn’t make sense. I was really
confused on why they didn’t reach out and ask the
counselors and campers and everyone to help, because we
definitely would.”

Kids from Alaska, Oregon, Montana, Idaho and Washington
flock to Camp Eyabsut every year, to spend a blissful week
with other kids who understand them. Maxwell Whitney, 9,
was only two-months-old when a rice cooker fell on top of
him, severely burning his skin. He went to camp for the
first time last summer.

“It changed my life. I was afraid to go in pools
sometimes, and embarrassed. Once I got back, I felt
totally different. Like I was normal.”

“He was just a happy kid,” says Maxwell’s mom, Tiara
Whitney. “He took off his shirt that summer, playing in
the pool in the backyard. He was different. He was more
comfortable in his skin.”

The Camp Eyabsut family is disappointed that the
Northwest Burn Foundation didn’t tell them they were
considering cutting camp. They say they would have
definitely jumped in and helped raise money. Now they’re
desperately trying to scrape together $80,000 to make sure
that camp opens as planned on July 22.

Click here if you’d
like to donate to help keep Camp Eyabsut open.