Our mission is to promote the education and prevention of burn injuries and improving the lives of burn survivors. The burn foundation is run by professional fire fighters that volunteer their time giving back to their communities. Among the many programs that we offer, we have five focus areas: Camp Eyabsut, Emergency Housing, Liaison Response Team, the smoke detector program and research grants.
Camp Eyabsut
Camp Eyabsut is a week long summer camp for young burn survivors, ages 5-17 years old. 2015 was Camp Eyabsut’s 28th consecutive year offering kids a chance to escape the everyday challenges that living with their scars brings to them. It is held in July in the Cascade Mountains about an hour east of Seattle. This year, we had 57 campers with 28 counselors and 10 support staff that include camp nurses, a child life specialist and activities support. Campers come from all over the Northwest at no cost to the child or their family. The cost to send one child to camp is approximately $1000 for the week, which includes their travel to/from camp, food and lodging. Camp staff and counselors are 100% volunteer. Many of the counselors are adult burn survivors themselves, returning campers and fire fighters. For more information on Camp Eyabsút, contact www.campeyabsut.org
Emergency Housing
The foundation provides emergency housing near Harborview Medical Center to serve the families of burn patients. Patients come from all around the Northwest and Alaska. Studies have shown that having loved ones near during recovery improves patient outcome. We have two furnished apartments with kitchenettes within walking distance to Harborview Medical Center that allow the families to get some much needed rest while their loved one is in the burn center. These apartments are occupied about 80% of the time. The Liaison Response Team
The mission of the Liaison Response Team (LRT) is to provide assistance to fire fighters and other emergency service personnel, their families and departments following the aftermath of a burn injury. When a fire fighter is injured and ends up in a hospital, their loved one may be rushed from their home and not return for weeks or months while they tend to their family member in the hospital. We help provide lodging, food, clothing, and more to assist them during this critical time. With direction from family, we may also help mediate between the nursing staff, visitors, the media and the fire fighter’s family. During the record setting wild fire season of 2015, we implemented this program when several fire fighters were burned and one stayed at Harborview’s Burn Unit for approximately 60 days. Smoke Detector Grants
The foundation provides standing grants for smoke detectors that fire departments can provide to their municipalities or districts. We offer a $500 matching grant that individual fire departments may apply for each year to buy smoke detectors and distribute them throughout their communities
Additional Projects
The WSCFF Burn Foundation has a long history of providing research grants to the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center’s Burn unit. Since 1987, the foundation has given more than $1.2 million dollars. We will continue to support these endeavors as funding is available. As part of our partnership with Harborview Medical Center, we arrange visits from fire fighters with burn survivors and children in the ICU once or twice a month. The fire fighters visit and do activities with the kids. We also arrange pizza parties and ice cream socials. Sometimes it’s hard to tell who has more fun - the kids or the fire fighters.
