LUCY SCHULTZE

Special summer camps designed with their needs in mind are a literal breath of fresh air for children across Mississippi living with asthma.

"The real reason we started this was so that children with asthma could still participate in summer camp," said Merle Eldridge, whose job as director of development for the American Lung Association of Mississippi includes directing Camp Wheez-Away each summer.
"Typically, these children are not going to your regular camps, because a lot of them have been told they can't do the same things other kids do," Eldridge said. "Our goal is to make sure they have as much fun as possible — while we're helping them understand their asthma and also monitoring them 24 hours a day."

Held at Camp Wesley Pines in Copiah County, Camp Wheez-Away was launched in 2000 through a partnership with Baptist Health
Systems. The five-day camp enlists as many as 90 volunteers – from physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists giving their valuable time day and night, down to high school students coming in for an afternoon to help with arts-and-crafts projects.

The week of activities includes swimming, fishing, canoeing, a ropes course and games such as tug-of-war. It all culminates in an end-of-the-week "water day" where kids go wild with shaving-cream fights, a dunking booth and even a fire hose dousing.

"That's our opportunity to give them the most fun we can — packed into a single day," Eldridge said.

Fun and adventure are high on the agenda, too, at Camp Breathe Ezzzze, hosted each summer by North Mississippi Medical Center at Tishomingo State Park. Launched as a weekend camp in 1999, the camp expanded to a full five days in 2002 and welcomed 47 children from across north Mississippi last year.

The goal is to have as many as 60 children, said Kathy Haynes, RRT, who directs the camp as respiratory manager for women's and children's services at NMMC.

"Our whole goal is to educate these children in knowing what triggers their asthma," she said. "They come to camp with those triggers already being identified, but the children need to learn to be independent. Their parents can't be with them 24 hours a day."

Located in Mississippi's northeast corner about an hour away from Tupelo, the camp provides a setting for a wide range of activities and presentations. Past camps have featured horseback riding, country line dancing, chalk art and, of course, daily swimming.

"We do educational segments every day, and then we also want them to know they can play and be adventuresome just like any other child," Haynes said. "We also want the parents to know their child can still go away to camp."

A part of instilling independence is training the kids to check their peak flow rates throughout the week, and to be comfortable enough with their rescue medications to use them before an attack sets in.

As many as 20 medical staff are on-site each day at the camp. Most come from Tupelo, while Magnolia Regional Health Center in Corinth also contributes two team members. The American Lung Association of Mississippi and Project Hope also provide assistance for the camp.

Camp Breathe Ezzzze is open to ages 6-12 and the cost per camper is $50, although many receive scholarships.

Camp Wheez-Away is geared for children ages 8-12 who have been diagnosed with moderate to severe asthma. Since there's typically a waiting list for the 48 spots — 24 for girls, 24 for boys — the camp's medical director combs through applications to ensure that the children who would benefit most are not left out.

Campers come to the central Mississippi site from across the state. The $300 fee is steep for many families, but scholarships are offered according to financial need.

"We never turn a kid away because they can't pay, so we try really hard to raise money for scholarships," Eldridge said.

For the 2006 camp, a Jackson-area mortgage company provided $11,000 in sponsorship support toward the $30,000 cost of completely funding the camp.

That meant the camp was able to offer 100 percent scholarships to every child, Eldridge said.

The volunteers, most of whom hail from the Jackson area, undergo a training regimen in preparation for the camp. The goal for volunteers is both to reinforce the lessons children receive in programmed activities and also to keep a keen eye out for the warning signs of an asthma attack.

"We want to make sure they completely understand the severity of asthma," Eldridge said. "A lot of people don't realize asthma can kill you."

To measure the effectiveness of the camp's educational programming, campers are tested both at the beginning and at the end of the week. The testing is designed to show progress in both medical measures such as a child's peak flow rate and in a child's knowledge and understanding of his or her disease.

"Last year, 96 percent of our campers showed a tremendous increase in their knowledge of asthma," Eldridge said. "And since we have many campers with both parents smoking at home, they're also healing their lungs while they're here.

"They get a breath of fresh air, and they walk away from camp feeling really good about themselves and knowing more about what they can and cannot do."

In addition to funding for scholarships, needs at Camp Wheeze-Away include volunteer physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists and counselors. The statewide medical community can also help by simply telling young asthma patients about the camp, Eldridge said.
Camp Wheeze-Away will be held July 16-20 at Camp Wesley Pines. For more information, call (800) LUNG-USA.

Camp Breathe Ezzzze is set for May 28-June 1 at Tishomingo State Park. To learn more, contact Haynes at (662) 377-4706.

April 2007