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MILLCREEK CANYON, Utah (AP) — An annual summer camp in the Utah mountains gives children scarred by severe burns a place to meet other kids dealing with the same emotional and physical trauma.
The campers work on self-esteem and confidence while taking part in activities like swimming and archery in Millcreek Canyon, the Deseret News reported (http://bit.ly/2bdONaB).
Camp Nah Nah Mah is named for the Ute word for friendship and organized by the University of Utah Health Care Burn Center.
Fifty kids ages 6 to 12 attended this summer's five days of camp.
Psycho-social program coordinator Kristen Quinn said the kids spend an evening wearing colorful outfits to walk a red carpet to dinner.
"It's just fun," Quinn said. "We deck out the lodge. But we're also talking to the kids about how you walk with confidence. How do you enter a space with confidence instead of being nervous that people are going to stare or ask questions."
Camper Tayton Winward, 11, was 7 years old when he sustained burns that put him in a coma and hospitalized him for 40 days.
"My life is really changed after that," he said. "Some changes are good, and some changes are bad."
Winward said that after he was burned on his arms, face and in his airway, he felt isolated.
He's gone to the burn camp the past three summers. "There's lots of other kids out there, and they know what you've been going through," Tayton said.
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Information from: Deseret News, http://www.deseretnews.com
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