Dear Michael T. Mathis,

I just wanted to send you a quick letter to let you know that the important work that you are doing with the children that have experienced the trauma of being burned really is very helpful.

Our daughter Karla has attended your summer camp for the past four years now, and we can see a big difference in her attitude now. She used to be very quiet and didn’t want to go anywhere, or even to be seen out with her friends, in which she has very few. She used to just want to sit in her room and listen to music.

Since she started going to camp and talking with you and some of the other counselors and friends that she made at camp, it is like she is starting to bloom as our precious little girl again. We all know that if we could do things different we would so that this would never happen, yet you and your staff and her other friends she has made have helped her to believe that there was a reason that she was burned, and that she is now left with the opportunity as she now puts it to 'pay it forward', and help other children to accept what has happened to them and move forward to live a full life. That she is just as special now as she ever was. 

She has also become a lot more comfortable talking to others about what happened to her, and that it really was not her fault that she got burned, but now it is her opportunity to help others to understand that it is not what is on the outside that counts, but what is on the inside that really matters.

We feel very blessed to have found such a caring group of people to help our daughter come back to us, as a happy young lady now. She talks about wanting to someday help other children who have been burned like her. Who knows, maybe she will become a doctor or a nurse.

Sincerely,

Kate & Tom Adams (Karla’s Parents)