Tulsa Firefighters Burn Camp
Victor Leake
 

The Tulsa Firefighters Burn camp was held once again on Lake Hudson. Held at Dry Gulch USA, located between Pryor and Adair. This is a week long camp of activity free to any child who has been hospitalized for burns. The children have one to one child to counselor, they do horse back riding,
swimming, water slides, train rides, go-carts, arts &crafts, a mini firefighter combat challenge course; as well as a lot of other activities. On the last Saturday, this year it was on August 16th. They ask for volunteers to bring boats and take the children with counselor out for a few hours of fishing. Due to low numbers of boaters this year we all took at least two children out.

The counselors at the camp or made up of firefighters, nurses, burn technicians, teachers and adult burn survivors from across the state. Counselors are chosen very carefully and are taught to deal with the special needs of burn victims. They keep a 1:1 camper/counselor ratio.

This is the only annual camp for children and teenagers that have suffered severe burn injuries anytime in their lives. The camp is provided free of charge and offers burn survivors an opportunity to make new and lasting friendships with other burn survivors.

There were about 50 children and only 16 boaters showed up, a few bass club members were there from Cimarron Valley; OKC Bass anglers; & Six Lakes. A few came from Arkansas, and towns across Oklahoma. To all those that showed up a big thank you! The kids are great and talking to several of the boaters I think the adults came away having as mush fun as the children, I know I did.

The two kids I took out, ages 9 and 11 caught over 30 sunfish and a couple of bass in about two hours of fishing. The weather was getting hot so we only had them out from 7 till 10:30. At 11 the float Helicopter from the lake petrol landed in front of the watching crowd exciting kids and adults alike. After all fish were counted and released we went back to "Dry Gulch USA" for lunch.

If you know of a burn survivor that would benefit from The Tulsa Firefighter Educational Clowns Burn Camp or if you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to support their mission, call Huffy's hot line at (918) 610-8122 or write to:
Tulsa Firefighters Educational Clowns
4308 South Peoria, Suite 911
Tulsa, Ok 74104

They also have a web site: www.tfdclowns.com

The Tulsa Firefighter clowns are off-duty Tulsa Firefighters who have a common goal to teach fire and life safety to as many children as possible. They have been doing a great job for over 18 years but all of those I talked with hope one day they will not be needed any more. Their goal is that no child ever be burned or injured in a fire again.

And remember when you write a check to help these children it is Tax-Deductible!

A special thank you to Shawna Burton & Gary W. Gunter for all the work they put into this event.

Fish often, catch all you want; Keep just what you need, and Release the rest for the future.