Children's Hospital Colorado Cleft Camp helps kids find themselves: "A safe space"

For a long weekend, just shy of 20 kids will get to spend some time with people just like them. Young people who love to explore the outdoors, crafts, play games, and express themselves to people who understand their differences. They're also people who were born with a cleft, whether that's a cleft palate, cleft lip, or a combination of the two. 

"That is what makes them stand out (outside of camp) and coming here to camp... it gives them a unique identity outside of that," Camper Ava Blakely said.  "We all have had that so it is not the thing that makes us the black sheep anymore. It is what brings us all together and I think that is really special."

The kids range from very young, around 8 years old, to 18, like Ava Blakely and Isabella St. Marie, who have both been coming to the camp for the last decade. 

"This is a safe space," St. Marie explained, looking across the scenic pond near the bunkhouse. While she says she has been spared a lot of the bullying and odd looks others get because she only has a cleft palate (which is less visible) she knows the kinds of things kids do when they see someone different. 

"I do think kids can be cruel, they ask questions, I've had to explain things to them or they might be less considerate," St. Marie said. 

But it's not just the way other people treat them that sets these kids apart. They're also constantly in and out of the hospital for surgeries.

"I have had 10 surgeries and, fun fact, that is the average number of surgeries that a normal person has in their whole life," Blakely said. "I had that before I ever turned 18."

Dr. Gregory Allen, a pediatric otolaryngologist with Children's Hospital Colorado said the condition is more common than you might expect. 

"It varies a little bit by race, but it's probably as simple as to say it occurs in about one and 700 births," Allen said. "If you just look at the population statistics, there's probably around 70 to 90 kids born each year in Colorado that have a cleft lip, a cleft palate, or a combination of the two."

He's worked with both St. Marie and Blakely on their surgeries and said how incredible it is to see the young woman grow in confidence over the years. 

That kind of confidence comes from people accepting you for who you are, no matter what you look like, sound like, or even if you can't hear as well, according to St. Marie. It's about helping the kids there understand they don't have to be ashamed of looking different, and that people who do treat them differently are wrong to do so. 

Part of that comes from education too, according to St. Marie. 

"People aren't aware of what a cleft is," she said. 

As both girls prepare to graduate from cleft camp, they can't help but look back on what the experience has done for them, and the brighter futures ahead for the kids just getting into the camp. 

"I hope by the end of this weekend that will be a lot less shy," Blakely said, now an active thespian herself. "Figuring out your identity with cleft, but also without cleft, what else do you do? It's a part of me, I am also so much more than that."