“Linda and Gary Hansen came to speak to my Occupational Therapy class at Washington University in St. Louis about burns this summer. Gary had been burned while in his car and had to have several surgeries on his face for the burns. They helped to improve the burn support group here in St. Louis and they began the Missouri Children’s Burn Camp. At the end of their presentation, Linda mentioned that she needed more counselors for the camp. I decided to go. I can’t even express or describe how absolutely AMAZING that experience was!! I learned SO much while I was there and met so many amazing people. The outlook on life of those campers truly inspire me. The camp is held at Camp Sabra campground in the Lake of the Ozarks. It is wonderful and there are SO many activities there. I even faced my (big) fear of heights and walked across a bridge with missing planks about 40-50 feet in the air!– it was SO scary but I was moved to do it. I returned from camp yesterday and I woke up today feeling great and with an even better outlook on life than I had before the camp. It was so touching and everyone there is like a big family. There were also two campers from Peru who were invited to come who only spoke Spanish. One of the campers was in my cabin. I was with her the majority of the week and helped to translate for her, especially when she was trying to speak to other campers. The St. Louis Post Dispatch actually came and wrote a story on those two campers while we were there and went into the Sunday paper yesterday. I’m glad that happened so that more people can read/learn about this amazing camp. I hope to do more work with them in the future as a counselor, as well as help them to write grants because this camp is privately funded to provide a free camp experience to burn victims. Wonderful, wonderful~~ I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to be there.”
-From a former Truman student,
Jackie Goff, BHS, CHES, MSOT/S ’12
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
Program in Occupational Therapy