During Western Michigan University’s halftime shows at Waldo Stadium, baton twirlers perform with two to three fire batons at once. For most of them this is an advanced collegiate skill, but for 21-year-old twirler and burn survivor Brianna Bolinger, it is an opportunity make a statement that she is no victim.
“My entire life a lot of people have tried to classify me as a burn victim,” Bolinger, a WMU junior, said. “It’s saying that the fire claimed you and you didn’t overcome it. While navigating the whole process of learning to twirl fire batons, it was also a process to myself of discovering that I was truly a burn survivor rather than a burn victim.