Chantel Fields

August 7, 2007

West Virginia children have more than water-balloon fights and songs around the campfire at Camp Catch Your Breath. The American Lung Association of West Virginia operates the summer camp at Jackson's Mill to teach children how to manage their asthma while they enjoy crafts, swimming, and competitive games in the great outdoors of Lewis County.

Chantel Fields, regional Vice-President of ALA-WV and resident of Eleanor, told Putnam Rotarians today that her organization traces its start to the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis in 1904. It was the first nationwide, voluntary health organization aimed at conquering a specific disease.

But by mid-century, TB had been all but eradicated. The organization then began to fight other respiratory diseases, and in 1973 changed its name to the more inclusive American Lung Association.

Nearly one-third of all asthma sufferers are children, and in West Virginia an estimated 33,000 middle school and high school students

Camp Catch Your Breath serves up to 75 children for a week-long session. The cost is $70, but many of the children are on "scholarships" provided through charitable groups.

The staff includes a fulltime medical doctor and two nurses. Every child is charted as to medications and use of nebulizers.

Many children with respiratory problems have multiple allergies. Sometimes asthma can be remedied by something simple as changing a carpet, or removing a hampster or other pet.

When they gather around the campfire at CCYB, the flames are fed by propane to avoid wood smoke and stirring up of wood molds.

The week at camp usually ends with the "Asthma Olympics."

Outside the summer months, ALA-WV reaches out to children through several school programs, including Teans Against Tobacco Use (TATU), and Open Airways for Schools.

Open Airways teaches students to deal with their asthma through a school-based health education program. Chantel's organization offers regular training sessions for adult facilitators throughout the state.

An Alternative to Suspension (ATS) includes four sessions for students facing suspension or fines for possession or use of tobacco.

After the ATS sesions, students are recruited to join Not-on-Tobacco (N-O-T) a tobacco-cessation program developed by ALA through researchers at our own West Virginia University. N-O-T helps teens to reduce or stop the use of tobacco.

The average age of beginning smokers nationally is twelve years. In West Virginia, the average age is twelve years.