Sunshine. Swimming. Smiles. These are three things that made this year’s Camp I’m Sill Me soooooo amazing. As always, I was so extra ready to get to camp. The countdown had begun about 40 days prior. I looked forward to seeing the one less day each morning I woke up on the Facebook page. The smiling faces makes it all worth it. The sunshine makes everyone ready to jump in the pool and go for a swim.

This year we had a bunch of new faces. Some of the kids from last year didn’t get to make it due to various other actives, but I sure did miss them. As 63 campers came rushing to camp this year, we had a full house. There is one thing everyone that comes to camp love about camp other than the kids, the food. All we do is enjoy scrumptious food. I looked forward to the fresh fruit and cheese grits every morning. I didn’t always like wake up call, but its all part of camp. You have to wake up early to get everything in.

One new addition to Burn Camp this year was a rodeo. This year’s theme was Western, and boy did I fall in love. I came back from camp a rhinestone cowgirl. That is my new theme song by the way. I learned how to two step and I’m working on my line dancing. Every year we have a talent show and a dance. The dance has to be my favorite event of all. Everyone enjoys it. Almost everyone is dancing, and the kids get down!!! I think I could be a wonderful cowgirl.

Everyday is filled with activities to keep the kids active and having fun. They did a little bit of everything: swimming, basketball, dodge ball, softball, canoeing, fishing, hula hooping, stick horse rodeo, riding adult tricycles, making crafts and much much more.

Brother’s Keepers rode their motorcycle to camp, so that we could see all of the pretty bikes. A couple of the kids were burned by motorcycles, so they were scared to get close, but other than that, we were walking down the road to see them all. I loved the ladies bikes; they were always a girlie color. The Brother’s Keepers donated a fat check to us this year, and we really appreciate it. Along with the check, they had two men parachute down to the camp. It was AMAZING. We thought one of them as going to hit the power lines, but he didn’t. They said they were going 120 miles per hour. They both had been parachuting for about 15 years. Next year, I’m going to jump from the plane. I have always wanted to do it. I’m going to do a test jump in November to make sure I can do it. I also said I wanted to bull ride next year.

Camp ISM has a special place in my heart. I have been volunteering my time for five years now. I love it. It is like a vacation from life. Although I was not burned, I know how the kids feel to have scars. I have the scars they have. I have the skin graphs they have. I get the stares they get. And it hurts. We were at Splash Kingdom, a waterpark in Texas, that we go to every year. I was walking with two of my girls, and this group of people started staring. One of my girls said, I wish they would stop looking at me; they make me want to cry. That made me want to cry. But being the joking person that I am, I simply said “Your soo beautiful they can’t find the words to say to tell you how beautiful you are.” If I could take away all of the scares that they will get for the rest of their life, I would. If I could cry every tear for them, I would. If I could change their situations, I would. But I can’t so all I can do is love them and care for them.

I don’t know what I would do if I hadn’t met every single one of those kids at camp. I love them so much, and I cant wait until June 3, 2012, so I can experience another piece of heaven.