Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, San Francisco

Title of entry: How a Unique Summer Camp Connects Kids with Limb Differences

About this entry: This feature tells the story of teenage campers at Camp Winning Hands, the only summer camp west of the Rocky Mountains aimed at children with limb differences, as part of an engagement campaign to reflect UCSF’s commitment to the community beyond our own walls.

By turns tender and direct, it’s a touching story of what it’s like for children to live with highly visible limb differences. Readers discover an oasis where kids make lifelong friends and are able to shoot bows and arrows, swim, and rock-climb, like any other summer camp. Nearly all the camp’s counselors also have a limb difference and are uniquely positioned to act as mentors.

The feature required extraordinary sensitivity. Staff writer Laura López González and freelance photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice spent hours with children, working with them to unearth anecdotes of their lives that revealed both their realities and their resilience, often fueled by the special sense of belonging formed during this unique summer camp. In original photography, prose, and a family video, the story highlights the children’s agency, making them the true heroes of the story.

The story was amplified internally and to the local community through newsletters, targeted social media and physician outreach to convey the message more broadly, with 1,400 initial views that sparked 4,235 actions (clicks, plays, shares), and an average of 69 seconds on the page – 20% above our normal rate. The story will remain in our storytelling playbook as we move towards building a new hospital in this community.