Weekend Brings Young Amputees Together and Boosts Confidence

The Amputee Coalition of America (ACA) Youth camp helped Jamal Maccou get back on solid footing, and now he is helping other children and teenagers do the same. Between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve in 2000, an automobile accident resulted in the amputation of Maccou's left leg above the knee. In the painful and trying years of rehabilitation that followed, he made a great deal of progress but never felt like his old self.

"When the accident first happened, my confidence was pretty low," says Maccou, 18, who lives in Illinois. "I felt like an outsider." That all changed five years ago when Maccou took part in his first ACA camp, where he found he was no different from anyone else. After four years as a camper, he returned in 2007 as a junior counselor for five days of non-stop action and activities, July 18-22 at Camp Dream in Warm Springs, Georgia.

"I love this camp," Maccou says. "As the first year at camp progressed, I realized that [limb loss] wasn't anything that was really going to slow me down."

More than 60 children with limb differences between the ages of 10 and 16 converged on the camp from 26 states across the country. In its eighth year, ACA's Youth Camp is run by the Youth Activities Program (YAP) and offers a wide variety of physical and recreational activities and team-building exercises, including wheelchair rugby, basketball, swimming, and canoeing. "We thought about a campfire, but it's usually 90-95 degrees out there this time of year," says Derrick Stowell, MS, CTRS, ACA's YAP coordinator. "That's a little too hot."

Golf and tennis were introduced this summer, but the camp is more than just fun and games. Educational sessions concerning nutrition and informal support group meetings are offered, as are chances to learn from peers and adult amputee mentors.

Kimmie Champion, who says she has "the best last name ever," heard about the camp from her prosthetist and made her first trip there last summer. Champion was immediately hooked, mainly because she enjoyed working with the younger campers, but also because it was her first experience of being surrounded by others with limb loss or limb differences.

"It was a little unusual at first. Other than my prosthetist, I only know one other girl with a prosthesis in my town [in Georgia]," says Champion, 18. "Last year as a camper I fell in love with the younger girls. That's what I like most, to help the little girls learn something."

Stowell, who said he found a perfect mix of working in the outdoors and mentoring children when he joined the ACA and YAP in September of 2006, enjoys watching the campers work their way through the various activities. But it is the friendships that are forged and the lines of communication that are opened that matter most.

"The biggest part is the interaction with other amputees," Stowell said. "Some children might not know another amputee until they come here."

In a 1996 fact sheet from the National Limb Loss Information Center (NLLIC), the latest available, an estimated 70,000 children with limb loss or limb difference between the ages of six and 18 live in the United States.

Sponsored by Ohio Willow Wood, Otto Bock Healthcare, and the restaurant chain Denny's, and partially funded by the Centers for Disease and Prevention, the ACA Youth Camp begain in 2000 as the Youth Initiative, a satellite program offered at the annual ACA Educational Conference & Exposition. The camp has grown into a six-day event, including travel days for the campers and training sessions for the counselors that bookend a series of outdoor activities.

"I love it here so much," Champion says. "After learning so much and meeting so many different people, I really want to become a physical therapist. I'll always be able to help other people that way."