Aug 15, 2008 6:30 pm US/Eastern
Camp Helps Victims To Look Past The Scars
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
A healthy body image can be a challenging issue for some young women. And when you have had an injury that leaves scarring, that can make it even more difficult.
CBS3's Pat Ciarrocchi has details of two teenagers who have dealt with their own deep scars by going to camp.
Kailya Harper was seven when her t-shirt caught fire in the kitchen.
"Right here, my shoulders, my stomach to right here and my back," Kailya said explaining her injuries.
Sequoia's hands were scalded when she was 18 months old during a 1993 snow storm.
"I guess my hands were cold and my brother Dale ran them under warm water and they got scarred," Sequoia explained.
But as the Philadelphia girls grew older, the emotional scars ran deeper until they experienced the Mid-Atlantic burn camp in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
"Before burn camp, it was turtle necks and long sleeve shirts," Kailya's mom Shonda Knight said.
25 young Philadelphia area burn survivors are zip-lining, swimming and riding horses together.
"It's feels like a different air that you're breathing," Kailya said.
And with each breath, a new way of looking at others and themselves.
When asked even she sees the scars that other people have after a while, Sequoia said "You see them, but you don't pay them no mind, you shouldn't judge nobody by the way you look."
Philadelphia's Burn Foundation provides full scholarships for the campers.
"The mission is to treat them psychologically, socially and emotionally, there are a lot of people who stare at them or make fun of them," Patsy Porter of the Burn Foundation said.
The lessons are powerful ones.
"You shouldn't stop doing what you want to do because just you got burned," Sequoia said.
"Just because you were in a fire, it doesn't mean the world's going to end. You're beautiful, inside and out," Kailya said.
Though, a little shy, the girls really are beautiful inside and out.
Seeing others with more severe burns has helped them accept their own conditions, but truly feeling embraced at the camp has healed them beyond measure.
The winter camp is in the Poconos.
RELATED LINK:
Mid-Atlantic Burn Camp
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