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------------------------Trail’s Edge Camp
Trail’s Edge is located at Camp Fowler in Mayville, Michigan, north of Lapeer. The camp is run by health care professionals who double as camp counselors. Attending Trail’s Edge Camp is of no cost to families as donations provide for this unique experience. Many campers are patients in U-M’s Pediatric and Adolescent Ventilator Rehabilitation Program—one of the leading coordinated ventilator programs in the United States. “There is something really magical about this camp,” says Mary Buschell, R.R.T., Camp Director and a respiratory care therapist. “Everyone leaves here enriched and inspired.”
Trail’s Edge Camp now offers a tree house accessible to ventilated patients in wheelchairs. The Craig Van Laanen Tree House was dedicated last spring on the first day of Trail’s Edge Camp. This project started in 2002 as a collaborative effort between the University of Michigan Health System and the Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Adaptive tree-climbing techniques and specialized equipment allow patients to travel up 25 feet in the air. Volunteers drove hundreds of miles and donated thousands of hours to build the tree house. In addition to the tree house, volunteers built a 180-foot-long decked pathway to provide a barrier-free walk with nature and access to the launch site for the tree house. The tree house was built in memory of Craig Van Laanen, who worked at Mott Children’s Hospital as a respiratory therapist. He died from cystic fibrosis in 1997. Craig was instrumental in the development of Trail’s Edge Camp. With the addition of the tree house, Craig has left another legacy at this very special place.
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Summer camp is a special time for all children. But Trail’s Edge Camp for ventilator-dependent children and teens gives campers the rare opportunity to be away from their families and experience independence. Campers are able to enjoy fishing, hiking, creative arts, music, horseback riding, boating, swimming, and more. 
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