Young Arizona hospital patients get camp experience through donor support

PHOENIX — Some kids don’t get the chance to run and play.

Some don’t spend their childhoods in parks or on playgrounds; some grow up in worlds filled with tubes and hospital beds.

But through the efforts of the Phoenix Children’s Hospital and its donor support, some kids will get to experience what they haven’t been able to before: what it’s like to go to camp.

This weekend marks the eighth year the hospital has taken its young patients to Prescott, where they experience life at Camp Maska. There, the kids will get to go horseback riding, play laser tag, and sit around camp fires — and all of the cost of the $1,500 experience is covered by donors.

“It’s just a wonderful way for our kids to get away and be normal healthy kids,” said Maureen Saloom, the hospital’s special events coordinator.

The camp has a full infirmary staffed with seven nurses and a physician, but despite the extra care the young patients need, there’s no other indicator that Camp Maska’s visitors are anything but regular kids having the time of their lives.