Camp Valor

A week ago I had the awesome chance to do some volunteer pictures for an organization that has personal signifigance to me.  I was able to do some pictures for the Utah Hemophilia Foundation at the summer camp they have each year.   If you happen to be wondering what Hemophilia is, or if it is a term you are only a slightly familiar with, I will give you a little bit of information (from a great website) and some great websites so you can learn more.

On the Fast Facts page of hemophilia.org it says:

Hemophilia is a genetic bleeding disorder that prevents the blood from clotting normally. The mainsymptom is uncontrolled, often spontaneous bleeding. Internal bleeding into the joints can result in pain,swelling and, if left untreated, can cause permanent damage

Hemophilia results from the deficiency of one more  proteins known as  blood clotting factors. There are 13 clotting proteins in the body, all of which contribute to the formation of a clot. The two main forms are hemophilia A (factor VIII deficiency) and hemophilia B (factor IX deficiency). Hemophilia occurs in 1 in 5,000 live male births, of these 80% are hemophilia A and 20% are hemophilia B. Theworldwide incidence of hemophilia is estimated at more than 400,000 people. Approximately 70% of peoplearound the world do not have access to treatment.

• Currently, there is no cure for hemophilia. While treatment exists, it is costly and may require lifelonginfusion of replacement clotting factor that is manufactured either from human plasma or usingrecombinant technology. Hemophilia occurs predominately in males. Women are carriers of thedefective gene and may experience mild symptoms. In about one-third of cases there is no knownfamily history of hemophilia. Instead, the disorder results from a spontaneous genetic mutation.

The reason Hemophilia, and the Utah Hemophilia Foundation have personal signifigance to me is because it is something that is a part of my family.  My brother, my late uncle, and some of my cousins little boys have Hemophilia.  We have both factor VIII and factor IX deficiencies, so we are very experienced in the Hemophilia world.  My cousins made a blog about Hemophilia, you can read it here (It is a good read, I recommend it).  My dad got my family involved with the Utah Hemophilia Foundation because of my brothers hemophilia, and that is how I got the chance to take pictures at Camp Valor this year.

 The camp theme this year was “Cruise to Infuse”, and every day they focused on a different place and got to do some different things associated with that place.  I was at camp on Monday, but I heard a fire dancer was coming on Wednesday.. so cool!

They could practically be considered a cruise ship if they were anywhere close to the ocean.  Check out this awesome pool they had access to all week, not to mention the other activities around that included fun things like basketball courts, a ropes course, and even a zip line.  These kids were in for a fun week.

They had invited me to join them for dinner after the big group picture.  It was fun to stay up there a little longer and get to know people a little better.

I went up to take a group picture.  I was a little nervous since I was going to be taking a picture that included 120 people, mostly children, and I had never done anything like that before.  They told me I’d do great, and I did have a great time doing it.  I hope I get the chance to do it again in the future; the foundation, volunteers, and kids were all great!