Camps for children with illnesses on the rise: normalcy and fun help with coping and healing of disease and disabilities

Camping Magazine, Nov-Dec, 2002 by Melora Mayo

Carol LeBoeuf will never forget it...the day her twelve-year-old son David came running out of the Clara Barton Day Camp in North Oxford, Massachusetts, yelling, "Mom, they're all just like me!" David, who has had Type 1 diabetes since early childhood and has been attending the Heard Street Discovery Academy in nearby Worcester where he is the only child with diabetes in a school of 260, had made a discovery of his own. There were other kids just like him. And he--and they--could have a serious medical condition, one that is alarmingly on the rise in this country, and still enjoy the carefree summer activities of normal children.

Carol says, "David has always been a serious child. Sometimes he meets girls who have his condition, but rarely boys. At camp he met a counselor named Kevin who also had Type 1 diabetes and bonded with him instantly He began to relax to the point where he got the 'Barton Boy Award' as the most happy camper.

Carol, too, had a positive experience. As a registered nurse, she had given up working to be on call for David's school because the Heard Street Academy has no nurse on staff. While David was at camp, she said she felt confident about his safety away from home for the first time since he was diagnosed.

Camp Can Be the Common Bond

Across the country, among families dealing with serious diseases, the camp movement for children with such conditions is on the rise. Whether it's juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, diabetes, or lifelong challenges such as blindness, through camping their conditions have become the common bond that helps them to not define themselves by their diseases but to view themselves as kids first.

Major diseases and disabilities burden the childhood of tens of thousands of youth each year. One in five hundred children suffers from eitherType 1 or Type 2 diabetes. It is the most expensive major disease known, costing over $100 billion for treatment and its complications. Juvenile arthritis affects an estimated 285,000 children under age seventeen and 50,000 of them have juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. And, cancer is the leading cause of nonaccidental death among children.

A joyful discovery

In experiencing camp with other children affected by the same condition, David is not alone in his joyful discovery Claudia Uppendahl, age ten, who has had Type 1 diabetes since she was five and has attended the Clara Barton Camp since she was six, feels the same way: "I feel happy knowing I'm not the only one and that I can be a regular kid. The counselors treat everyone the same."

Claudia's mom, Laura, is a single parent who gave up her floral business and moved in with her parents to care for her daughter full time. She says that camp is a place her daughter can be totally herself "while I sit back and relax... a total break for me. Also, Claudia learns how to do one major thing for herself each summer. Last year she learned how to give herself an insulin shot in her abdomen."

Camps for Special Needs Are on the Rise

Clara Barton Camp has served close to 30,000 children during its seventy-year history of managing day and overnight summer camps for girls and boys. To meet increasing demand, it recently expanded its summer programs to co-ed day camps in nearby Worcester, the Boston area, New York, and Connecticut.

What's going on? Shelley Yeager, executive director of The Barton Center for Diabetes Education that administers the camp programs, explains: "Diagnoses of children with both Types 1 and 2 diabetes are rising astronomically in this country. But a diagnosis is only the beginning. Parents need help in coping. A child and her or his family and friends must learn to adjust to the many changes in lifestyle necessary to enable a child to live as normal a life as possible. Camping is the best way we know to help make that realization happen."

Currently, according to American Camping Association (ACA) files, there are more than two hundred camps for children with special diseases such as diabetes and cancer. The camps serve those with a range of diseases, including HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy cystic fibrosis, and cerebral palsy. Several of these camps include those with related conditions, such as spina bifida, blindness, and hearing loss.

Camps may be sponsored on a national basis, such as those funded by the Lions Clubs International Foundation. They may also be supported by local chapters of national charitable organizations, such as the Southern California chapter of the national Juvenile Arthritis Foundation, or, as part of a special division within an organization, such as the American Cancer Society's Camping Center of Excellence.

National/International Associations Bring Camps to Kids

International Diabetes Camping Association

Zula Walters, executive director of the International Diabetes Camping Association, confirms the trend toward greater camp numbers and says today there are more than 124 diabetes camps in America and 110 worldwide. "Our newest board member is from the Republic of Georgia. New camps are even forming in England, South Africa, and Japan," she reports.