Camp Cranium Empowers Kids Living with Brain Injury to Enjoy Life to Their Fullest Potential

By: Julie Kirchner

Imagine a world where kids with brain injuries splash in a swimming pool and captain paddleboats around a lake. A world where they fly down the zipline one minute and create works of art the next. Where a kid in a wheelchair climbs a rock-climbing wall. A world where kids of all abilities can dance, ski, and play.

This is Camp Cranium’s fight song, and the impact made by the Pennsylvania-based, volunteer-led nonprofit organization founded in 2008 with a mission of empowering children with brain injury. Camp Cranium is dedicated to providing one-of-a-kind experiences for children ages 6-18 with brain injuries.

For a week each summer, children who have had a traumatic brain injury or acquired brain injury have the unique opportunity to meet other children with brain injuries in a safe, supportive, and fun environment. In the winter, the children have the opportunity to engage in an all-abilities ski retreat. Campers form lasting friendships, improve their self-confidence and independence, and achieve goals they did not believe were possible.

Seeing the Need and Taking Action – How Camp Cranium Came to Be

Through her experience working as a music therapist in the rehabilitation unit at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Camp Cranium’s founder, Lexi Campbell, identified the need for camps that can reach children with medical issues in a way that no other resources can.

Because there were no brain injury camps offered in the community, Lexi decided to start her own camp in 2007. By June of 2008, Camp Cranium became a reality with 24 campers attending the first year of camp. What started as a summer camp has grown into an incredible community of support. Now a NICU/pediatric nurse at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Lexi continues to support Camp Cranium along with two other dedicated volunteer leadership roles. You can learn more about this incredible, 100% volunteer leadership team and board of directors on the Camp Cranium website.

Camp Cranium’s Impact in the Community

Camp Cranium has served nearly 700 campers in its 14-year history, and this year its summer camp returned in full force following two years of virtual camp during the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact made on campers and their families is powerful, as one camper’s parents, Brad and Bridget Turner, shared in a testimonial following summer camp this past June (2022):

“The look on [our] daughter Ally’s face when she arrives to Camp Cranium is one that cannot be replicated! The friendships she has made and the activities she participates in are just a piece of what makes Camp Cranium great! When we see videos of our wheelchair-bound, nonverbal daughter on a zip line, our hearts are filled with an abundance of love. Camp Cranium is the definition of inclusive!

“As parents, we get [to have] a five-day respite while we know that Ally is in the best hands with Camp Cranium, knowing that they have a 24-hour medical staff to make sure she gets her medicines on time! We as parents look forward to Camp Cranium just as much as our daughter Ally does!

“Thank you, Camp Cranium. You will always be deep down in our hearts!”

Camp Cranium Programs and Events

  • Camp Cranium Summer Camp is a weeklong overnight camp experience held each June at a completely handicap-accessible recreational facility in Millville, Pennsylvania (Camp Victory). Campers are children ages 6-18 years old who have been diagnosed with an acquired brain injury/traumatic brain injury. Campers are matched one-to-one with a counselor for the week of camp. They stay in air-conditioned cabins with other campers and counselors. Campers get to experience climbing a rock wall, going down a zip line, swimming in the pool, participating in a dance night, roasting marshmallows by the fire while singing camp songs, fishing in the pond, and riding in paddleboats. They also participate in themed-based activities. All activities are adaptable to all abilities.
  • Camp Cranium’s All-Abilities Teen Ski Retreat program was launched in 2018. Participants are teens who have attended Camp Cranium’s summer camp. This all-abilities ski retreat is a weekend event held at Jack Frost Ski Resort in Pennsylvania’s Poconos each February, and it provides an uplifting and inclusive experience. Jack Frost’s Adaptive Ski Program allows the kids to ski down the mountain by providing sit skis, balance skis, and many other adaptations to allow all the opportunity to ski the slopes.
  • 5K Run, Walk, Roll for Brain Injury is an annual fundraising event held at Tyler State Park in Richboro, Pennsylvania, made possible through a partnership between the Brain Injury Association of Pennsylvania (BIAPA) and Camp Cranium. BIAPA is committed to preventing brain injuries and improving the quality of life for people who have experienced brain injury and their families. All proceeds from the event benefit BIAPA and Camp Cranium.
  • Brain Injury Awareness Month (March) provides an opportunity to increase awareness around brain injury while sharing inspiring stories from Camp Cranium’s campers and demonstrating the transformative impact these programs have on children living with brain injury and their families.

Learn More and Get Involved with Camp Cranium

To learn more about Camp Cranium’s impactful programs or to get involved as a volunteer, please visit their website, campcranium.org.

Some of our Powerhouse team members demonstrated the love for Camp Cranium deep down in our hearts by participating virtually from coast-to-coast in the all-abilities Camp Cranium/Brain Injury Association of Pennsylvania (BIAPA) 5K Run, Walk, Roll annual fundraiser earlier this year.

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