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WHITE HAVEN — Ask the kids at Camp AsthmaCadabra what they like best and they’ll tell you:
“Archery,” said Vincent Scotti, 9, of Taylor.
“Swimming,” said Hunter Kozloski, 10, of South Gibson.
“Crafts,” said Addison Mosgo, 8, of Mocanaqua.
They were all in luck, because archery, swimming and a craft session devoted to painting little space ships and molding tiny aliens from clay all were on Friday’s schedule.
But, because the young campers at Camp AsthmaCadabra have special concerns, another part of the day’s activities was devoted to reviewing triggers that can cause asthma attacks (pollen, dust mites, air pollution, exercise) and recognizing the symptoms (shortness of breath, chest tightness or pain, a wheezing sound when exhaling).
If they experienced any symptoms the young people were supposed to tell an adult, and Camp AsthmaCadabra — which is held annually for a long weekend on the grounds of the YMCA’s Camp Kresge — had a physician, nurse practitioner and respiratory therapists ready to help.
“They take really good care of us here,” said 9-year-old Kaitlynn Clark from Clarks Summit as she shaped antennas on the head of a tiny clay alien at an arts-and-crafts table. “I love it here, all the activities.”
Counselor Meghan Padden from Mountain Top agrees. She loved attending Camp AsthmaCadabra as a child camper, and now enjoys helping young people ages 7 to 12 have a traditional, overnight camp experience filled with games and activities.
As a child there were times she had to take several medications and spend 45 minutes at a time under a nebulizer. She wouldn’t have been able to attend a typical camp, Padden said, but at Camp AsthmaCadabra “there was always someone to sit with you.”
Despite the need for campers and staff to be vigilant about asthma attacks, which can be triggered by certain plants as well as physical activity, one of the goals of the camp is to help children enjoy exercising outdoors.
“The best thing for a child with asthma to do is exercise,” said Tony Delonti, a program specialist from the American Lung Association who directs the camp. “If they’re sedentary there’s a greater chance of obesity and that aggravates the condition.”
“We’ve never had a kid go to the hospital because of asthma,” he added. “We’ve had to take someone if they fell out of a bunk, but not because of asthma.”
“With swimming, archery, rock climbing and a zip line, we show them, you can do anything, anybody else does,” Delonti said.
Pulling out his cell phone, Delonti accessed a “state of the air” app that showed the area’s ozone level as “14” and particle pollution at “32.” Both numbers were in the green, or safe levels.
You would expect a camp far from busy highways to have clean air, said Margaret Parsons from the American Lung Association, who also visited the camp on Friday. But, she said, the American Lung Association’s position is that the Environmental Protection Agency’s ozone standard is based on old science and is not strict enough.
“Right now (the standard for ground-level ozone) is 75 parts per billion and we’d like to see it changed to 60 parts per billion,” she said, urging concerned individuals to sign a petition for the Lung Association’s “I want to play outside” campaign, which can be found at fightingforair.org.
According to the American Lung Association’s website, revising the standard would prevent 7,900 premature deaths, 1.8 million asthma attacks in children and 1.9 million missed days of school each year.
