Ninja Warrior community goes above and beyond to make sure this family can play together

Like many children, Brenna Kamps and her siblings love American Ninja Warrior. But what makes the Kamps different is that they are triplets—and Brenna has some unique challenges. “They were born at 25 weeks gestation,” their mother, Angie Kamps, told WHOTv.com. “They were due on December 15th, but were born on September 1st. I was at work and my water broke, and they were here 12 hours later... all three of them suffered severe brain hemorrhages when they were born because they were born so early. Brenna kind of got the brunt of the complications from the prematurity. She has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, hydrocephalus, which means she has fluid on the brain.”

This makes it more difficult for Brenna to keep up with her siblings, but still doesn’t let that stop her.

Angie told ANWN that “for the triplet’s 7^th birthday, we surprised them with a trip to the Wolfpack Ninja Tour in Loveland CO. To make the surprise even more incredible, I wrote to the Wolfpack asking if Meagan Martin would consider sending them a quick note telling them they were going to the tour. She took it the extra mile and sent them a video invitation to meet her and other Ninjas at the tour. They were absolutely in awe! I really didn’t even expect a response to my initial request for a birthday message. We’ve been so amazed by the support we’ve received from ninjas, it is such a positive and inclusive community.”

At the tour, the girls were able to participate in activities with the Ninjas. Brenna told Maggi Thorne of her desire to do the Warped Wall and Maggi was the first to make that dream a reality. She climbed the wall while pushing Brenna up in front of her to the waiting arms of a volunteer at the top. It was incredible and Brenna was so proud of herself!”

The triplets love participating in Ninja classes at Emerge Academy in Grimes, Iowa, run by American Ninja Warrior Spencer Johnson. “Brenna is quite determined and vocal about wanting to join in at the gym,” Angie said. “Annaliese and Lucy’s coach, Byron Shank, saw Brenna’s strong desire to participate. He pulled us aside after practice one day and told us he’d like to volunteer his time on the weekends to do one-on-one Ninja training with Brenna so she wouldn’t have to miss out. He’s been absolutely incredible and Brenna asks almost daily to ‘do ninja with Byron.’”

Another activity the Kamps’ love to do as a family is go for bike rides. It’s become a challenge as Brenna has gotten older because she can’t ride a bike on her own, so the family has been looking into other options. “Brenna loves to be outside and to move. One of our biggest challenges as parents to Brenna is finding ways to adapt activities so that Brenna can participate with her sisters. It leads to a lot of frustration for Brenna because we can never be spontaneous in active play, it takes a lot of planning to execute,” explained Angie.

So when the family found the Great Bike Giveaway, it seemed like a wonderful opportunity to try to win Brenna an adaptive tandem bike so they could all just hop on their bikes and go for a ride. (You can check out the contest and vote for Brenna here.)

“To see Brenna just be able to be a kid would be amazing,” Angie said.