Who We Are

Building Responsibility and Independence, Developing Goals and Establishing Success

Our mission is to promote health and quality of life for children with end-stage organ disease and transplantation.

Children with end-stage organ disease and transplantation are on a journey that will continue all their lives – from waiting for an organ to staying healthy after receiving one. At Camp BRIDGES, we believe children and their families shouldn’t have to do it alone. We’re here to help. Through our week-long camp and weekend programs, we offer an integrated approach to enhancing the emotional, physical, physiological and financial well being of children and their families.

Our History

As children growing up with the reality of dialysis and multiple surgeries, Birmingham teenagers Laura Brunson and Bryan Jeffers understood the challenges of living with kidney failure and transplantation. In early 1993, Brunson and Jeffers, along with their parents, conceived the idea of a camp to bridge the gap between a childhood of chronic illness to a young adult life of health and productivity.

The idea blossomed with seed money from Ben Russell and the guidance of Dr. Ed Kohaut and Dr. Mark Benfield, chairman of the department of pediatric nephrology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. With a small group of volunteers and six teenage kidney patients, Camp BRIDGES hosted its first camp in the summer of 1993.

Over the next ten years, Camp BRIDGES grew to serve hundreds of children and teenagers across the southeast with solid organ transplants, including kidney, lung, liver and heart, as well as those awaiting transplantation. In 2002, Camp BRIDGES received 501(c)3 status as a non-profit organization under the name of The BRIDGES Foundation. The number of camps expanded steadily to include a week-long teen camp, a young adult camp, a family camp, and a camp for children who receive life-sustaining dialysis treatments for chronic kidney failure. Campers and their families are offered a camp experience at no cost where they are provided medical compliance information, financial guidance, counseling, nutritional assistance, peer support, socialization, and recreation. Our camps are located on the beautiful Children’s Harbor campus on Lake Martin, Alabama.

Today, Camp BRIDGES also offers a Higher Education Scholarship Program, a transition program, and an annual educational conference for patients and their families.The memory of Laura Brunson and Bryan Jeffers is preserved in the mission, programs and spirit of Camp BRIDGES.