Like Chuck E. Cheese, with insulin
For the eleventh summer, diabetic children had a place to spend the summer feeling like normal kids. The Circle of Life Camp at Snyders Lakne, New York, concluded its activities this past week, offering a week of activities focusing on education and support for juvenile diabetics.
Founded in 1996 by Dr. Alicia McAuliffe-Fogarty, at the time an 18 year-old diabetic, the camp has grown over the years, now hosting about a hundred campers every summer. They engage in traditional camp activities like hiking, canoeing and crafts, as well as diabetes-management tasks. The goal is to help kids develop good disease management skills along with acceptance of their condition and a feeling of social inclusion.
“They don’t want to take their insulin,” said McAuliffe-Fogarty. “They just want to be normal. I think it’s sort of a positive peer pressure here.”
The non-profit organization hopes to raise funds to expand the camp program into a permanent Circle of Life Center, offering longer camp sessions and weekend events year-round. McAuliffe-Fogarty hopes to expand the center into a residential treatment facility with a few years.
On a personal note, I am about the most cynical old fart in the world, so no one was more surprised than I was when I went to the camp’s website and got all teary-eyed. I’m 38 and have only been dealing with diabetes for about six months. I can only imagine being a kid and facing up to this thing. I’d like to meet Dr. McAuliffe-Fogarty (a fellow hyphenate, no less) one day and shake her hand. Until this, I hope you’ll go check out their site and see if you can help them out.
(via The Troy, NY Record)
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