Camp kids
FOMBELL, Beaver County — Children came to YMCA Camp Kon-O-Kwee Spencer this week for the West Penn Burn Center Summer Camp, a program to help young burn survivors continue to recover both physically and emotionally.
The campers celebrated their time together with a game of Quidditch on Wednesday, their last day of camp.
“This is a camp for children that are burn survivors,” said Linda Leonard, registered nurse and burn camp director. “Some of their burns are small, some are large, but they each have the (similar) experience.”
Leonard and the camp staff work to create an environment where the campers can learn to regain the comfort and confidence to be unafraid to take chances.
“They learn to take positive risks,” Leonard said.
That could be anything from getting to know other campers and engaging in crafts to trying a zip line for the first time, she said.
Each year the camp sticks to a theme which ties together many of the activities.
“This year's theme is 'Making Magic Happen,'” Leonard said.
She said the theme ended up often revolving around Harry Potter, and campers came up with the perfect game to round out their time together.
“We decided to do a Quidditch tournament,” Leonard said.
Quidditch is a game that was invented by J.K. Rowling in her Harry Potter novels and has been adapted into a real life sport where players run with sticks representing magic brooms and score points by throwing balls through hoops.
The day of the tournament, dozens of campers broke up into the red and the blue teams and competed to see who could score the most points in a game too complex for many sideline fans to grasp.
Jacob Stahl, 14, of Fox Chapel talked about the fun he had at the camp.
“It was actually really cool; it was really nice,” he said. “I had a good time, just generally a good time made new friends.”
Jacob said he enjoyed spending time with the other campers and counselors.
“Lot of activities, usually games, sometimes we did a craft or two,” he said. “It was usually just us chilling and hanging out.”
Jacob said he'd recommend the camp.
The camp is held each June at YMCA Camp Kon-O-Kwee Spencer and is open to children, ages 7 to 17, recovering from a burn injury at West Penn's Burn Center. The camp, which opened in 1986, is free.
