The Hearts of Camp No Limits

I was born with a condition called Fibular Hemimelia, in which I was born without the Fibula bone in my right leg (and a shorter right leg than the left), as well as three fingers on each hand, like a Ninja Turtle. When I was about six years old the doctors wanted to amputate my leg because of the length difference between. However, around that same time my family had just moved to a new neighborhood and our next door neighbor, who saw me playing outside, introduced himself and suggested we come to his hospital residency to discuss a procedure called “limb-lengthening.” My family met their team and they explained that they could do a procedure that would lengthen my right leg to eventually be equal to my left leg in length. Due to being a growing kid/teen, my right leg was always playing catch-up to my left. So much so that when I was twelve years old, they stopped the growth in my left leg so that my right leg could catch up quicker. Flash forward to forty-three surgeries later, I am now a healthy and strong adult- physically, mentally and emotionally.

It was a challenge growing up on the sidelines at school, often home-schooled during my operations and missing out to fun kid stuff like recess, after-school hang outs and recreational sports, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Those challenges led me to who and where I am today! It wasn’t until mid high-school where I really fell into my groove and felt more comfortable in my own skin. I was really interested in wrestling and Theater. Theater felt like a way for me to escape all my own insecurities and be a different character or person within my own skin. I’d often make homemade videos with my friend- we would reenact movies, create skits and really enjoyed acting and just being silly. I felt really inspired and confident at that time, tackling both the physical nature of wrestling as a sport and then creatively in acting class and making funny videos.

After high school, I moved to North Carolina and Florida, before ultimately moving back to Baltimore. Being back in my hometown was great, but I still had an itch to chase my dream of wanting to pursue acting. I knew New York would have been too close to home and I wanted to venture further, so I made the big move and drove cross-country to Los Angeles to chase my dream. I made a connection with a big director by simply just showing him my hands and introducing myself, which ended up starting a partnership to create a TV show, “A Little Different”. I was the host of the show and would travel around Southern California to find and interview unique individuals who have extraordinary talents and didn’t let their differences get in the way of chasing their dreams. It was a huge full circle moment for me, because I was doing what I loved the most by just being me and not hiding my hands. I was using my life experiences to connect with others who lived similar challenges and experiences and highlighting it. Little did I know this show was only the beginning of my full-circle moment. While marketing our show to various networks and organizations, I came across Camp No Limits. I reached out via Facebook messenger and asked if they would be interested in sharing our show with their community. Within minutes someone answered and said they’d gladly share and then asked if I’d be interested in attending a Camp. That person was the one and only MARY LEIGHTON! When I arrived at the Big Bear camp, I had this feeling of excitement and nervousness. I had never seen so many kids or adults who were a little different like me until that point. I actually felt really shy and insecure for a bit, because of how outgoing and confident everyone else was, but I learned to quickly let my guard down and realized how magical this place was. There was no place like this that existed when I was growing up. I knew I had found a home, and I knew I wanted to be a part of this community FOREVER. Over the past seven years being a part of the Camp No Limits family, the part I enjoy the most still is how campers and families come into the weekend so shy or in their shell (like I was), but then by the end of the weekend we have all become a family. Everyone at camp is their purest and vulnerable self, and there is nothing more magical than that. Camp is such an integral part of my life and career now, that I can’t picture what life was like before it.