Our History
Marion Doctor
A Social Worker at Children’s Hospital Colorado had a vision to create a place where burn survivors could come together and continue to heal. She didn’t have any examples. Programs like this didn’t exist, but she found people who believed in her dream. And so, in 1983, Marion Doctor started the first residential burn camp in the United States.
Thank you, Marion. Thank you for being a dreamer. Thank you for being a believer. Thank you for never giving up. Thank you for impacting all our lives. Marion’s vision lives on through the memories of all who loved her and all who have been changed or inspired by burn camp.
The Children’s Hospital Burn Camp (1983 – 2010)
With the current model of healthcare and reimbursement many pediatric burn survivors receive only a fraction of the psychosocial and rehabilitative care they need. We know these kids need different support at the various developmental stages of their life. We offer a suite of programs including Summer Burn Camp, Winter Burn Camp, Family Burn Camp and a Young Adult Retreat. We help campers improve their own lives using an enriched curriculum alongside physical and social challenges. Our Burn Camps Program provides comprehensive medical intervention from a staff that specializes in the care of the child with a burn injury, in both an acute care setting and the camp environment.
We were the first residential, rehabilitative, camp exclusively for Burn Survivors and is the only multidisciplinary, rehabilitative, residential camp program in the Rocky Mountain region. Our camp model provides quality camp programming which integrates medical and psychosocial care in a camp atmosphere, as well as, incorporates focused activities that foster natural interactions and discussions between campers about living with a burn injury. We provide a quality camp program integrating medical and psychosocial community in a camp atmosphere. We have become a model for burn camps around the world and have partnerships with Children’s Hospital Colorado and referring hospitals across the country and around the world.
Children’s Hospital Colorado Burn Camps Program (2011 – 2025)
Children’s Hospital Colorado Burn Camps Program has been providing an opportunity for young burn survivors to recover together in community. Through partnerships with hospitals nationwide, camp connects survivors within a camp setting. Intentional and individualized programming is created to address each child’s goals while working collaboratively with families and referring burn units. A growth plan is created based on each individual’s needs. This program meets each child where they are in the recovery process and helps them heal from the trauma experienced by a burn injury.
Since 1983, we have been a place of healing and inspiration for hundreds of burn-injured children. It began as a one-week summer camp program serving 20 survivors and has evolved into a continuum of rehabilitative experiences offered throughout the development of a young person’s life. Our programs are designed to guide kids beyond their scars and a life full of opportunity and possibilities.
No Ordinary Camps (2026)
Following a strategic review of camp programming, Children’s Hospital Colorado decided that to continue to serve patients and families in the best way, Burn Camp would need to evolve. Over the course of 2025, we worked alongside hospital leadership to design a plan to make sure patients in the burn program would have the opportunity to experience camp in the best way possible.
Our collective vision was to honor the legacy of the Burn Camps Program while preparing for the future. This required teamwork and dedication to the process. Children’s Colorado team members, clinicians and some of our amazing community that have been involved for years came together to ask: “How we can best leverage what’s been built and position Camp for an even brighter future?”
That’s how No Ordinary Camps, our new 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization, was born. This new organization allows us to optimize everything that makes our program so special, the programs, the people, and the values, while giving us the independence and flexibility to expand our reach, strengthen our funding base, and build new partnerships.
All of things we love about Burn Camp will remain unchanged: the same great partners, the same core staff, leadership, and medical team will continue their work, the same mission, the same programs, and the events. And we will continue to collaborate closely with our Hospital Sponsor, Children’s Hospital Colorado, ensuring the medical and emotional safety that has always defined this experience.
This transition marks a beginning not an end. It’s a beginning built on heart and purpose. Together well continue to prove no ordinary kids, no ordinary stories, and no ordinary camps.
A history of healing
Camp is a place where we all belong. For each of us in the burn camp community, it becomes a part of your story. There is a circle of support for not only the campers but all who participate. The foundation we build together at camp provides opportunity to recognize the beauty in each of us. And as Board President and camp counselor Alec Rhodes reminds us at the start of each day: “Today could quite possibly be the greatest day of your life.”
