It wasn't long ago that Emily Adamson would wear sweatshirts and cross her arms to conceal her handless right arm, but no longer.

"I only wear sweatshirts when it's really cold," the Shawnee High School junior said .

Adamson, 17, said her shyness lifted after attending the annual Amputee Coalition of America Summer Youth Camp in 2006 and 2007 at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation in Warm Springs, Ga.

She'll attend the camp again this year, as the camp is coming to southwest Ohio from July 20-24 at the Joy Outdoor Education Center in Clarksville in Clinton County .

"The camp we were at near Atlanta was just too small for the number of kids that were applying, so our team went out and came up with two sites and Ohio was one of them," said Paddy Rossbach, president of the nonprofit Amputee Coalition of America.

Rossbach said the coalition has a five-year contract with the Joy center for the camp, which is designed to provide youths age 10 to 16 who live with limb loss or limb differences a wide range of physical activities, team- and leadership-building exercises and opportunities to learn from peers and adult amputee mentors.

"It's an opportunity for kids who may have never seen another kid with an amputation, who feel they're the only ones in the world with an amputation, to get together with kids like themselves," Rossbach said. "Suddenly they're in a group where they're the majority, not the minority, and by the end of the camp to see these children, it's just like a flower has opened up."

Dr. Mary Beth DeWitt, a psychologist with Children's Medical Center of Dayton, said camps like the coalition's help parents and children gain some independence from each other, too.

"It builds the parent-child relationship," DeWitt said.

Rossbach, herself an amputee, said there are an estimated 70,000 individuals under the age of 18 living with limb loss in the United States. She expects the camp, now in its ninth year, to draw up to 80 campers this year.

The Amputee Coalition of

When: July 20-24

Where: The Joy Outdoor Education Center in Clarksville

Admission: $500 per child; financial assistance is available

More info: www.amputee-coalition.org or call (888) 267-5669.