Asthma is no obstacle for this first-time adventurer

Jeanette Williams wanted her 12-year-old granddaughter Rayna Blakesley to go to camp this summer, but all the programs she found were too expensive. And Williams worried that some camps wouldn’t take Rayna because of her severe asthma.

So it was with relief that Williams realized she could get funding to send Rayna to the Southern California Medical Program Camp -- or SCAMP Camp -- operated by the American Lung Assn. In late June, Rayna went to the camp near Julian and loved it.

“It was so fun there,” Rayna said. She especially loved learning marksmanship and playing a Valley girl in a skit for which her cabin won the camp’s “Asthma Idol” award.

“It was a fabulous experience and opportunity for her,” Williams said. “Thank goodness for the scholarship program.”

It was Rayna’s first time at summer camp and she hopes to continue going until she turns 16, at which point she wants to become a junior counselor.

Rayna has had asthma since she was very young. In the last year, she’s had to go to the emergency room three times after severe attacks. Sometimes she blacks out and can’t remember what happened.

Because Rayna often feels unstable after receiving medication during breathing treatments, she’s had to miss school. That’s meant falling behind, and her grades have suffered. Having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has added to her challenges.

“I’m more of a visual learner,” Rayna said.

When she enters seventh grade at MacArthur Fundamental Intermediate School in Santa Ana in the fall, Rayna wants to perform better academically. If her grades improve, Williams has promised Rayna that she’ll search for an agent to start her modeling career. Tall for her age and long-haired, Rayna rolls her eyes in embarrassment, but clearly she’s excited about her potential.

Modeling isn’t the only thing Rayna sees in her future. She’s working this summer on designing a computer game. She just completed a community college course in computer animation in which she was both the youngest student and the only female.

Williams says Rayna is constantly sketching -- planning for her animated characters and working on fashion designs. Rayna says she doesn’t let her asthma get in her way.

About 10,000 children will go to camp this summer thanks to $1.6 million raised last year.

The annual fundraising campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which this year will match the first $1.1 million in contributions at 50 cents on the dollar.

Donations are tax-deductible. For more information, call (213) 237-5771. To make donations by credit card, go to latimes.com/summercamp.

To send checks, use the attached coupon. Do not send cash. Unless requested otherwise, gifts of $50 or more will be acknowledged in The Times.