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Did you (or your child with T1D) go to a diabetes camp? Please share more about your T1D summer camp experience in the comments! Did you (or your child with T1D) go to a diabetes camp? Please share more about your T1D summer camp experience in the comments!
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I went to Camp Za Ni Ka sleep away camp for kids with diabetes for two weeks every summer from 1963 to 1967 on Lake Erie, Catawba Island, Ohio. It was life enhancing to be with other school age kids, teens, and young adults with T1D, as well as a few grown up adults with T1D who helped to staff the camp along with an awesome MD camp director (Dr Fred Hiss) and his staff of wonderful and caring nurses, activity specialists, and older former camper kids with diabetes who served as cabin counselors. We kids had a blast just being kids doing fun kid things like water sports, archery, boating, arts and crafts, social dances, hayrides, field trips, talent shows, camp fires, and learning self-care skills to live fearlessly and holistically with diabetes. I went to a forty year reunion a few years back and it was awesome to meet and greet several Baby Boomer former campers still alive, all grown up and mostly well health wise despite living with T1D for 40 and 50 + years.
I attended 2 amazing diabetes camps as a kid during the summers from around 1967-1972. The first was in Granby, Colorado called Camp Chief Ouray and it hosted a session, likely sponsored by a diabetes organization, which mixed kids with and without diabetes. I learned to do my first self-injection there and my brother and sister, who didn’t have diabetes, attended with me. I think it was a 2 week camp which included lots of fun activities and learning. The second camp, still in existence was Camp Sweeney, in Gainsville, Texas. It was an amazing place, only for kids with DM, 3 weeks, lots of fun and a I gained a tremendous amount of confidence and diabetes education there. I attribute my strong knowledge base and interest in diabetes to this experience which, I believe, led me to become a diabetes nurse educator 🙂
Nice to hear your camp story Phyllis. You can still come to camp with me to volunteer!! Jeannie H
My son has gone to Camp Kudzu in Georgia for many years. He started at the day camp for little kids and since has gone to many week long summer camp sessions. He was a jr. counselor this year which gave him responsibility for helping with the younger campers. I cannot express how much he loves the camp. They have so many activities for the kids and the staff is so caring, understanding and fun.
Additionally, when younger, he attended Kiki’s Camp in Rome, GA for several years. It is a 4 day camp with drop-off and pick-up daily. It is also a wonderful camp with caring people and lots of fun.
Both camps have an educational component where kids learn about living with T1D also. It is so great to be with other T1D kids.
Ther was no such thing as Diabetes camp in 1968 probably for many years after.
There were a few camps for kids with diabetes starting in the 1950s – very few in the beginning, but as word got out and the model grew by the mid 1960s several camps were flourishing throughout the US. They were quite popular when I was a kid and teen with diabetes in the 1960s and 70s.
said camps were unheard of in the ’50’s
My son leaves for his third year at Hertko Hollow in Iowa. This camp has helped him not only to gain confidence, but also helped him nail down his activity/exercise basal profiles on his pump so he doesn’t crash.
Camp Chinook in Socal in 1979.
Yes I did, best summers ever! If my brother would have gone, too, our parents would’ve been T1 free, for 2 weeks. We bribed my niece to go by letting her know that I would be there for several days. She was having so much fun making new friends and learning how to manage her T1, she wouldn’t have even known I left, if I hadn’t told her good bye. I volunteered for a few years, and she attended until she was too old.
This was at Camp E. D. I. in Missouri. I was also a camp consoler while in nursing school in the early 1990’s.
I went to Camp Midicha in Michigan 1970-73. I was 9-12 yrs. It was life changing for me as I had been diagnosed 2 years prior. It was great to be around kids like me and really helped me with taking charge of my own care and made great friends like me. The doctors, nurses and counselors were amazing in keeping all us kids regulated. I remember my counselor Carried a lunch box with apple juice and cheese and crackers if we had a low. We did regular camp
Activities except for the lining up for shots before breakfast and dinner and recording our urine glucose readings together in our cabins. We had different meal plan cards we used for mealtime. A,BCD depending on how much food you could eat. We’d line up in lunch line and show our card to get our tray filled. Quite amazing how the doctors managed to keep us all regulated with such little technology back then. 2 shots a day and urine strips. The experience made me more confident in taking care of myself and telling others what I needed without feeling stupid or different. Oh it was co-Ed for 2weeks so I did have a boyfriend every year.
My T1D summer camp routines were very similar to yours back then … primitive by today’s standards, but we were so fortunate to learn meaningful skills on how to live and thrive with T1D as kids in the 1960s and 70s.
We took our 4-year old to diabetes family camp. It was not helpful for us. And we found the food hard to manage.
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for three weeks in 1959. One of the delights of my life. There were 8 tables for meals from least calories to the most calories. Don’t know if carbs mad much difference then. I was 12 and assigned to the 7 table next to the one with the most caloris.
Most of the kids were from Chicago. Some loved it and some hated it. Cost was $150 and my folks got a slight subsidy.
Next camp over was Norman B. Bar. We would sing disparaging songs about Norman B. Bar as we hiked in the woods.
Low BG was rescued by Ginger ale with the lid off so that it didn’t taste so good and all the fizz was gone.
Injections were first thing in the morning, in my case 10 units of regular and 32 units of NPH (not particularly helpful) insulin. I take roughly the same amount of insulin today. Ahh, the memories are great. 😊☺😍
I went to a 2-week camp in the mountains of Maryland for a few years. I learned to give myself a shot (pumps weren’t common in the 80’s). I also learned to swim, ride a horse, shoot a bow, and a few other non-diabetic skills. It was a good time.
I went to a camp in Friendswood, Tx for one summer when I was 12. I had only been diagnosed less than a year prior and was still struggling with injections. It was a hard summer because my Mom had been in the hospital since April 8th, going through several surgeries, and then recovering from a freak accident. I don’t remember a lot about the food at the camp. I remember swimming a lot, the sugar cubes the counselors carried around with them in case of lows, and one friend I made there. But, that’s about it. 😁
I was at Camp Sweeney in Gainesville TX in 1964 for three weeks. I did not like it in the beginning but then enjoyed it a lot. I had never been around other children or adults with diabetes so it was so nice to be with those like myself. I learned to take care of myself better by going to this camp.
I hated fishing which was one activity for the kids so I just sat on the pier with my fishing pole in the water. The supervisors thought I was having a low and took me back to our cabin. In those days observation was the only way to tell if the glucose was getting too low.
I made a lot of friends at this camp that I kept in contact with long after the camp ended. Unfortunately, those friends are now deceased.
I was at Camp Sweeney in ’67! I did enjoy it, but I was a tomboy and activites like fishing were my “thing!”
I went to Camp Huronda in Huntsville, ON for two weeks when I was 10 and 11, but couldn’t afford to keep going. Then, I went back as a nurses aide then a nurse for 8 years, I think? It’s a great place. I loved it
Ha Ha! I went there too. Didn’t much like the first thing in the morning hikes before breakfast. They don’t likely do that anymore. I remember I wrote home asking to get picked up after the first week. That didn’t happen, and now I understand that my parents needed a break. I do remember I had an eight-year-old’s crush on one of my guitar-playing camp counsellors.
I went to Camp Seale Harris in Jacksons’ Gap, AL, the first two Summers I was diagnosed (10 & 11 years old). I wish I would have appreciated it more. I just always got homesick, but I know it was fun stuff.
Camp Joslin in Massachusetts in the summer on 1972. I don’t remember much of the diabetes education but I do remember how much fun I had.
When I was 16 years old I worked in the kitchen helping preparing meals and snacks for the campers it was a great experience learned how to give my self injections really quick made lot of friends with diabetes never really attended as a camper but still got to experience a lot.
My kid doesn’t like camping.
My first year was about learning about having fun and being a diabetic it was like 1970s 1980s the second time I went I have even more fun the name of the camp is NJEDA I guess now even more fun with all the pumps and CGM available in the market probably won’t be as difficult to maintain sugars with all with that amount of children
Circa 1979 I was a senior in High School and was asked by my endo if I’d be interested in being a camp counselor for boys 8-12 years old. I’d been T1 for 5 years and was very educated and well controlling my diabetes. I went through a detailed training. This camp was in Bellefountain, Ohio. I truly enjoyed helping these more newly diagnosed boys understand that they had the ability to live a good life and control their diabetes.
I had just become a CDE when my daughter 13 was diagnosed with ”’T1d.
about 5 mo into T1
d she went to camp and learned so much and was on top of everything including carb counting and adjusting her insulin according to her blood sugar in 1990. they taught all of this at camp that year for the first time. she met a person who she then went to highs school with and they have remained friends for many yrs now. it was terrific and I (also T1D felt a load off my shoulders that was so good . She has always checked her blood always which is helpful to her great health. Camp is excellent for getting rid of stigma
My son went the summer after he was diagnosed in 2019. They said they would provide all the supplies including insulin, but they didn’t have what he was using: 70/30. It introduced him to doing MDI with pens. He didn’t enjoy camp very much because they let kids stay high at night and he blamed it for knocking him out of the honeymoon phase. My husband and I appreciated the opportunity to send him, however, because it gave us a much needed break and we didn’t have to worry about him.
I have never gone to a diabetes camp but it would be awesome to have something like that for adults and their families. My 2 sons did go. My oldest loved it and went 2 summers. My youngest wasn’t amused and only went once.
I went to a regular sleep away camp. The camp staff and nurses kept an eye on me and I did everything that every other kid did – climbed mountains, canoed rivers, played tennis. I went there for seven summers – best time of my life.
Went once. Absolutely hated it.
I had 2 opportunities to go to camp when I was very young. The first was Camp Sweeney in Texas, the second was Camp Sweeney in Minnesota. I was given a scholarship to Camp Sweeney around 1967 at age 10ish (and maybe Camp Needlepoint, too), and there, I learned I was not alone. It was an amazing experience, and I am forever grateful for the funder of my experience, so I try to contribute to camps now to enable other children to have that kind of experience!
I went to one when I was eight years old. It was the first time I was ever away from my family, and was a three-hour drive away. I learned to do my needle, and to swim. I guess it was a good idea, but I was traumatized when my family was hours late picking me up after the two weeks was up.
I attended Camp Firefly in PA. The camp is no longer, but I have many fond memories of being there. I am still in touch with a couple of people from there and I cherish their friendships.
What did they do with the “Ghost Rocks” I wonder? (50 campers/counselors per session, 3-4 sessions per year; a bunch of years… a lot of “ghost rocks”….
I went to Camp Sealth on Vashon Island in the 1950s for several years. We took a ship the Virginia 5 through the Ballard locks to get there. Lots of fun. They took great care of us but always made us eat every thing on our plate at every meal, even runny eggs! Ha!
I went to Camp Needlepoint outside of Hudson, WI. The camp was YMCA Camp St. Croix (it was on the St. Croix river) run by the St. Paul YMCA. The camp was set up to do everything non-diabetic kids did. There was naturally more attention paid to testing, injections, meals, snacks, reaction treatments, but other than that it was the same. Kids went swimming, played archery, field games, older kids went overnight campin and the oldest kids went on extended canoe trips. Between my freshman and sophomore years of college, I returned for a whole summer as a counselor.
I was 24 when I was diagnosed, so I was far too old for camp
I did as a child and it was the best of times
I have worked as a nurse volunteer at diabetes camp but never attended as a child. There was not one very close to us. I did attend church camp, cheerleading camp, and Girl Scout camp as a child with T1D. That was interesting.
My parents took me to Bearskin Meadows a few weeks after diagnosis in ’65 for a 2 wk stay.
Had fun, enjoyed activities, and like Phyllis, went on to become a Diabetes Educator. But didn’t go back to camp until 2004 as a nurse, and this year will “retire” Great memories and people. Will still go to the Adult weekends in August. DYF.org
Camp Firefly, (Spring Mount, PA). late 70’s. The diabetes “education” was the best that existed then. Very basic stuff. But a place we were all the same. The camp stuff was not too different than most overnight camps. The community of other diabetes beginners, elders was mostly good. A simpler time to be a T1 diabetic… a better time I offer. Canoeing most days on the Perkiomen Creek in the old aluminum canoes, that was fun…
I was diagnosed as a child in 1972, and over two summers attended a sleepaway camp called Camp NYDA in upstate NY. I was poorly controlled then, and instead of increasing my insulin the camp starved me for the entire stay.
Another camper in my cabin was often hypo- instead of reducing her insulin they gave her far more food than she could possibly eat.
It was UTTER MISERY for both of us.
1974, 1975 worked at a summer diabetes camp.
I went to the juvenile diabetes Kamp for Kids at the University of Delaware when I was first diagnosed in 2011 at the age of 9. My sister had not been diagnosed with T1d yet, so she accompanied me as my guest. It was a great experience overall and I highly recommend it!
Diagnosed in February 1970, went to camp for three weeks in August. It was a wonderful experience. Spending time with “experienced” teens was most helpful. I was the oldest camper that session and the most recently diagnosed.
Clara Barton Camp. Witnessed a hypoglycemic seizure there.
At age 9, I went to Clara Barton Birthplace Camp for diabetic girls in North Oxford, Massachusetts. That was in August 1956.
I thought I was the only one who had to get those horrible shots every day until I found out I was one of many!!!
At the time, I think I just valued the fact that I could go to a camp rather than being surrounded by diabetics. Also, I resented the camp counselors attitude of being overly positive about having diabetes and that it was purely a good thing was the message. I didn’t like that their lancing devices were very painful, so I used my own. But it was definitely a good experience over all and a great program to have. I loved their night hike.
This was Bear Skin Meadows in CA
Sii, asistí en el 2015 como paciente y este año como staff 😀 fue una experiencia grandiosa!!