ROME, Maine — Summer camp is one of those mythical places where nothing else in the world matters.
For a child living with a body that’s a bit different from others back at school, one camp in particular can be life changing.
Mary Leighton is an occupational therapist from Wales, Maine. She founded Camp No Limits 20 years ago this summer after getting some encouragement.
"I just happened to be at a conference learning about prosthetic education, and another therapist had said, 'You should really run a camp,'" Leighton recalled, "And I was like, 'OK.'”
She contacted Pine Tree Camp in Rome, already well-established and outfitted to serve kids of all abilities. It has been a perfect fit. Kids with limb difference and their families are welcomed there for a week of play and physical and emotional therapy.
We visited during camp in mid-August. Leighton had hired a mobile rock wall and trampoline. Feet away, kids swam in the lake while many others paddled kayaks. Leighton's team purchased special adapters that attach a paddle to a brace, which then wraps around the user's arm, so someone with one hand could still paddle with both arms.
For many, including Christine Nowicki's daughter, it was their first time in a kayak.
"It’s opened her entire world," Nowicki said, looking out at her daughter's boat as it headed farther from shore. "She has friends. She has friends that look like her. She has friends that look a little different than she does. She gets to do all of these amazing activities with incredible support."
Nowicki then paused, holding back tears.
"It’s magical," she said. "It’s just—I’m so glad we came."
For Leighton, the most significant impacts on the campers would likely be unseen, beneath the smiles and laughs, and instead impact their psyche.
"Feel comfortable to stand in front of somebody not wearing long pants or not hiding their arm anymore," Leighton explained. "It’s just those little things where, being able to come here and just be free and just be themselves is huge."
Adrienne Damicis attended Leighton's first camp 20 years ago. She lost her leg when she was a 1-year-old. It’s all she knows, but she was still living in a world where she was the only person she knew with limb difference.
"I think that was one of the things I loved so much when I came to camp is, for the first time, to see other people who have limb differences—some people who had legs that look just like mine," She recalled. "And I remember, too, some of the most impactful things in those first few years were seeing adults like me."
Now she is one of those adults, back at camp as a mentor alongside Bella Tucker. She was a camper, too, and is now back at age 23 as a mentor.
"It really comes down to having other people experience what you experienced and getting to connect in the way that I don’t really get to with people who don’t have a limb difference," Tucker said.
Camp No Limits has expanded to 10 states and has served nearly 3,000 kids, but it all started in the woods of Maine.