Of the more than 400 burn patients treated each year at the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center at the University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill, nearly 30 percent are children. Although immediate treatment for burn injuries may last weeks or months, rehabilitation of burn patients can extend over many years. Burned children face the additional challenges redeveloping feelings of self-esteem and regaining the acceptance of their peers at a time in life that is already filled with such difficulties.

Children who have suffered burn injuries share the same curious and adventuresome spirit possessed by all youngsters. Eager to learn and enjoy life, they often seek the approval of others to confirm their acceptance as individuals. For this reason, the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center sponsors Camp Celebrate. Each year, children who are current or former patients of the Burn Center are invited to spend a weekend at a local retreat. Campers participate in activities designed to foster interactions and opportunities that promote learning, personal growth, and success. The children are exposed to a therapeutic and educational environment through play. In this way, campers are encouraged to learn while having fun in the process.

The support offered by Camp Celebrate personnel and fellow campers alike promotes the development of each child's concept of individuality while simultaneously emphasizing group participation. Importance is placed on skills involving learning and perseverance. Each camper is encouraged to develop his or her abilities within each these areas. In this way, the children are given a starting point from which personal growth and improvement may continue long after the camp session has ended.

The attention and encouragement provided at Camp Celebrate, together with interaction with peers who share many of the same concerns and needs, serve to promote and strengthen each child's concept of self-worth.

Camp Celebrate began in 1981 as the very first camp for burned children in the United States. Continuing to expand each year, attendance at the Camp has grown from an initial fourteen campers to present day number exceeding seventy children. The Camp is currently staffed by well over 100 volunteers from the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center, local fire departments, the North Carolina Jaycees, and various other organizations. The success of the efforts made by all individuals involved with the Camp is consistently evidenced by the large number of campers who return year after year. In fact, many campers return as adults, serving as counselors and sharing their experiences, knowledge, and emotions with the children.

Dr. H. D. Peterson, Director Emeritus of the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center, describes Camp Celebrate as "...an intense three-day relationship that is very good for the children. If you are a child from a small town in North Carolina and have been burned, you probably think that you are the only on in the world who has ever suffered a burn injury. The children get together here, form friendships, and want to come back each year. It's really a wonderful thing."

Dr. Michael Peck, present director of the Jaycee Burn Center, works closely with the team leader, Harry Foy, and his associates, Cathy Calvert and Jodi McKenzie, to ensure that ample time and resources are provided for the camp experience each year. The organization and supervision of each camp experience is truly a team effort, drawing upon the skills and knowledge of a variety of volunteers and health care workers. As Dr. Peck notes, "the psychological recovery from a burn injury begins many months after the physical recovery.

Many patients do not begin to fully comprehend what has happened to their bodies until many months after they have gone home from the hospital. That is one of the reasons that this camp experience is so important for children-being with others of their own age and with similar injuries helps them process the events in their own lives in ways that parents, teachers, psychologists, and burn surgeons simply cannot hope to approach."

Although Camp Celebrate is an annual event, the planning and coordination necessary to ensure a successful operation involve the efforts of many people throughout the year. The Camp Celebrate planning committee consists of professionals representing Rehabilitation Counseling, Recreational Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Nursing Dietetics, Social Work, Education, and other related fields. These individuals are responsible for the development and implementation of the many educational and recreational activities of the Camp. Examples of activities often carried out each year include: Swimming, Canoeing, Arts and Crafts, Horseback Riding, Fishing, Sports, Team Games, Adventure Games, Field Day, Movies, Outdoor Education, Cooking Activities, and the annual Sunday afternoon Family Picnic.

Campers are assigned cabins or tents and are grouped with the cabin mates according to age and gender. Each cabin has a Lead Counselor who oversees the cabin group, and each child has his or her own individual counselor who is responsible for their well-being throughout the weekend. This one-to-one relationship has proven to be both therapeutic for the campers and rewarding for the counselors. Camp Celebrate provides members of the Burn Center staff the opportunity to be involved with the children as not simply healthcare providers, but also as friends. This unique contact between volunteers and campers creates a very special environment in which campers often feel free to share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

Campers are given a strong sense of support and caring, while volunteers receive in return the satisfaction of playing an important role in the growth of these children as burn survivors. Many children have so much fun at Camp Celebrate that they find leaving at the end of the weekend to be quite difficult. Many children do return again and again, gaining new experiences and making new friends with each visit.

Camp Celebrate is held each year during the month of May. All children who have received burn care and are at least four, but not more than eighteen years old, are invited to attend. The names of children who are younger than four years of age and have been cared for at the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center are entered into a computer database. These children automatically receive an invitation following their fourth birthday. Camp Celebrate is currently held at Camp New Hope, located eight miles north of Chapel Hill on NC Highway 86.