By Lisa Carlin
Wonderful memories can be made at summer camp, and for 12-year-old Sydney St. Amour, her camp experience has been an inspiration.
Sydney plans to hold a bake sale after school this week at Beach Middle School, where she is a seventh-grader.The purpose is to raise money for Camp Michitanki, a summer camp for children who have undergone transplants.
Sydney was born with idiopathic cardiomyopathy, an enlarged heart. She received a transplant when she was 6 months old, and for the last five years, she has attended Camp Michitanki.
“It costs a lot of money to have camp every year, and I want to do my part to make sure it can continue,” said Sydney. “I like spending time with people that have scars like me and take pills like me.”
“I think Sidney’s effort is fantastic,” said Bob Garypie, director of development and communications for the University of Michigan Transplant Center. “It’s a testament to the value she has found in the Camp Michitanki experience. Some of our campers were transplanted at very young ages and some more recently. They all share the experience of being tied to complicated medication regimes to keep them healthy and to avoid organ rejection.”
Other than daily medication and regular blood work and check-ups, Sydney is in good health.
“I think it is wonderful that she wants to give back to Camp Michitanki,” said her mom Katherine St. Amour. “She has made many friends there, and she looks forward to seeing them at camp every summer.”
Camp Michitanki started with a few dozen kids in 2003 and has grown every year since.
“The camp will take place during the last week of June,” said Garypie. “The camp is a special project (administered but not funded) of the University of Michigan Transplant Center. We welcome kids who have had solid organ transplants (heart, lung, liver, kidney, pancreas, intestine) at any hospital.”
Sydney received a jacket from the camp with its logo and recognition of the five years she has gone there.
She says, “I can do everything someone my age can.”
