Local kids with muscular dystrophy look forward to summer camp all year.

It's a break from being the only kid in class in a wheelchair.

"It's the one week a year when the kids aren't different," said Lauren Ferrari of Danvers, mother of Nick, 17.

Nick and 54 other kids from Massachusetts living with the disease were headed next month to Camp Allen in Bedford, N.H. Then the phone rang last Friday.

Families learned that the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the national organization that annually pays for kids from throughout the country to go to camp, had decided to suspend the tradition this year because of the threat posed by the H1N1 virus or swine flu.

Though she understood the concern, it still felt unfair to Natalie Gaudenzi of Beverly, whose son Max, 14, was headed to camp.

"We should have a choice whether to send our kids or not," she said.

To Gaudenzi, the camp experience outweighs what she considers a small risk. Max takes a bigger chance just going to school every day. The seventh-grader is one of nearly 1,000 students at Briscoe Middle School.

"They run the risk everywhere," Ferrari said. Nick just finished his junior year at Danvers High School.

"This is probably one of the hardest decisions the association has ever made," said Roxan Olivas, a spokesperson for the MDA. "We know what the camps mean to kids. It's like Christmas to them."

But multiple cases of swine flu were detected at MDA-funded camps in Utah, Minnesota and Pennsylvania, Olivas said.

Given that muscular dystrophy — a disease characterized by progressive weakness and degeneration of the skeletal muscles that control movement — compromises an individual's immune system, the MDA thought it wise not to sponsor the camps this summer, Olivas said.

Despite the setback, Gaudenzi has not given up hope. She has launched a grass-roots fundraising drive on the Internet to send as many Massachusetts kids to camp as she can. The per-camper cost is $675.

Camp Allen has agreed to accommodate the kids but is limiting the number of campers to 30-35.

"We need to make parents aware that there may be another option," Gaudenzi said.

There isn't much time. Camp is scheduled for July 5 through 10.

Campers swim, fish and ride horses, among other activities. The week benefits them and the family they leave behind. Parents get a short respite from their role as vigilant caretakers and the chance to spend time with their other children, Ferrari said.

The camp was previously hosted in Canton, and the setting was institutional, comparable to a hospital, Gaudenzi said. But the New Hampshire site, complete with cabins, has the rugged charm of any other summer camp environment.

Missing out on the new location would make it even tougher for Nick, his mother said. It was to be his 11th and last year of camp.

Renee Kenney of Tewksbury's 9-year-old grandson was preparing for his first trip to camp.

"It's kind of devastating for us as a family," she said. "We're hoping that he is able to go."

An online fundraising effort is underway at www.firstgiving.com/camppromise.