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Wendy Bynion and her daughter, Maddie, had just left the Pennsylvania Dutch Market in Cockeysville when they heard someone call after them:
“Excuse me, ma’am, can I talk to you?”
Braced to politely decline whatever the man was selling, Bynion turned around to see Dr. Joshua Abzug — a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at the University of Maryland Medical Center and an orthopedics and pediatrics professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine — walking toward them.
This might be awkward, Abzug said, but he noticed Maddie was missing a hand. He explained that he’d recently started a free summer camp in Baltimore County for children who have limb differences because of amputation, a disorder like cerebral palsy or — like Maddie — it’s just how they were born. He was wondering: Would Maddie like to come this year?
“That’s how it all started,” Bynion said Wednesday morning, smiling as she watched the children participating in this year’s Camp Open Arms prepare to make gingerbread houses. She was dressed in a baby blue camp T-shirt, one of many she and her husband, Dan, had collected since Maddie started going seven years ago and they started volunteering at the camp about two years after that.
“It’s a really tough thing as a child to have something that’s so different,” Bynion said. “It’s nice to be here, and be free of that feeling. It’s almost cool, because when kids come up here it’s like, ‘Oh, wow, what’s your thing?’ There’s no awkwardness in seeing or asking. It’s very joyful to see them be able to drop any fear about that while they’re here.”
That’s exactly the kind of environment Abzug hoped to create when he started Camp Open Arms nine years ago. Even though about 1,500 children are born in the U.S. with limb differences every year, according to the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital and University of Maryland Orthopaedics, some of them are bullied or excluded because of the way they look.
But Camp Open Arms, held for school-aged children this year from Monday through Saturday at Camp Running Bear in Monkton, is a “judgment-free zone,” Abzug said.
While a camper might start off the week trying to hide their missing hand, by the time camp is over, Abzug said, they’re not even thinking about it. Children don’t have to worry about being teased if they trip or can’t do something quite like someone without a limb difference can. They can just have fun.
Children carry the confidence boost they get from camp well after it ends, Abzug said. Many parents, he said, describe the camp as “life changing” for their children, who learn to talk about their limb difference without embarrassment and go out in public with their family without worrying about people staring at them.
“I think we all try and make the world a better place,” Abzug said. “This is certainly going to be one of my legacies. This camp will continue on, hopefully, well beyond my time on this planet and provide this opportunity for generations to come.”
Attendance at the free camp — which is funded solely by donations through the University of Maryland Medical System — has boomed in the last nine years, increasing from just six kids to nearly 50 this summer. Children and their families come from hours away, traveling as far as from Minnesota. The Hackerman-Patz House at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson donates several rooms for families coming from far away, and Courtyard by Marriott in Hunt Valley offers a discounted rate to those who can afford a hotel stay.
Most campers are Abzug’s patients. He’s known many of them for years, including 11-year-old Abigail Richbark, who he operated on when she was about 5 months old. She’s been coming to the camp for about eight years and said Wednesday that her favorite part is the ropes course.
Abzug also has watched Wendy and Dan Bynion’s daughter, Maddie, grow up. Seven years ago, she cried and cried when Wendy dropped her off on her first day of camp. But Wednesday, Maddie, now 17, was preparing to lead arts and crafts on Thursday and Friday. She’s been trying to bribe “Dr. Josh” — as she and most of the other campers call Abzug — to make her a junior counselor, she joked.
Though temperatures hovered around a balmy 85 degrees Wednesday, Camp Open Arms continued with its winter theme, complete with holiday music, fake snow and guests Santa and Mrs. Claus, who were dressed in Hawaiian shirts. On Tuesday, campers could slide into a small pool of ice water for a “polar plunge” — 10-year-old Royce Weldon’s favorite part of the week so far, and what 9-year-old Leah Everson called the “coldest thing on Earth.”
The kids also participated in more traditional camp activities, like a movie night, hiking and spontaneous games of tag. Before lunch, a group of elementary and middle schoolers divided into a boys vs. girls team to play Jenga — even though there were more girls than boys.
“That’s unbalanced!” said Royce, laughing.
“Plus, girl’s hands are better,” 10-year-old Anna Lotz said. (Indeed, the girls were victorious).
To make sure everyone could participate, a counselor helped 7-year-old Rosa Harmon, who doesn’t have arms, remove her pink Crocs so she could use her toes to push out a block. Later, at the ropes course, another counselor strapped her into a harness and helped her walk across a swaying tightrope.
“Go Rosa! Go Rosa!” the other campers encouraged her.
As the campers trooped to the ropes course, 10-year-old Emma Brackins told a counselor that the scariest part of the course wasn’t the zip line, like some kids said. It was the balance beam. She had terrible balance, and if she fell, she said, she could hurt herself, because she was extra fragile.
“We’re right there, in case you fall,” the counselor assured her.
And they were, holding Emma’s hand every step of the way, until she hopped down to the earth. Face flushed with victory, the little girl spun around to watch her friend complete the course, cheering her on until she joined her safely on the ground.
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