Page 4 - Fall 2020 CMTA Report

VIRTUAL

KIDS WITH CMT

Join Tribe of the

Funky Feet Online

BY MARCIA SEMMES

or kids with Charcot- wooded setting outside of Pitts- Take the traditional first-
Marie-Tooth (CMT) burgh in 2016. For four years, it night campfire, for example. The
disease, Camp Footprint is was a place where kids who had “Camp in a Box” kit mailed to
the one week a year they never met another kid with CMT each camper contained everything
can connect with their found each other in what they necessary for a virtual bonfire:
peers, an irreplaceable soon came to call The Tribe of the portable lanterns with a campfire
F opportunity to share the Funky Feet. Camp Footprint setting that created a flickering
hopes and fears of living with a (motto: One Step at a Time) gave light in their own personal “forts,”
rare neuromuscular disorder. campers the chance to master their a camp T-shirt, shaker eggs for the
When COVID-19 made real-life environment, participate in activi- drum circle and a campfire mug.
camp impossible, the CMTA ties planned just for them and While planners wanted to include
decided to recreate the camp expe- celebrate their abilities. graham crackers, Hershey bars and
rience online. It worked better One hundred campers experi- marshmallows for the traditional
than anyone dreamed possible. enced all the same benefits when campfire treat of s’mores, they
Former camper/now coun- the fifth year of Camp Footprint, were concerned about the items
selor Erin Black, 19, explained her funded in part by the Pennsylvania melting during shipment. Their
virtual camp week this way: Department of Education, solution? S’more Pop-Tarts.
“Imagine walking around with a migrated onto Zoom in August Each of camp’s five nights
backpack full of bricks for 360 2020. To an amazing extent, plan- had a theme: The Monday night
days, but then one day someone ners were able to replicate or find campfire was followed by a
tells you that you can take it off workarounds for all the campers’
for five days and feel free, joyful favorite activities.
and empowered. For one week
CMT isn’t an ugly, painful neuro-
logical disease—it’s a superpower.”
The CMTA started the only
U.S. sleepaway camp solely for
kids with CMT in a beautiful

4 THE CMTA REPORT FALL 2020