Enrollment is now open for Shore Kids Camp, a four-day camp experience for children (ages 7-12) with diabetes offered July 17-21, 2017 at MEBA Engineering School on Route 33 (Oxford Road) in Easton.
Provided by UM Shore Regional Health, Shore Kids Camp helps children with diabetes learn more about their disease and how to manage it in a safe and healthy environment while enjoying many activities, including bowling, boat rides, and visits to organic farms and area museums. The camp is managed by pediatric nurses with experience in diabetes who are assisted by high school and college students as volunteers. It receives support from varied community groups, including local Lions Clubs, Rotary Clubs and the Talbot County Public Schools field hockey teams.
“There is no other activity like this on the Eastern Shore,” says Wynne Aroom, patient education specialist. “We serve a local need because the diabetes camps across the Bay Bridge are overnight camps and many parents are reluctant to send their children that far away, while others find the cost of ‘sleep-away’ camp prohibitive.”
The educational aspect of the Shore Kids Camp experience includes guest speakers from the hospital and community such as dietitians, other diabetes educators, nurses with diabetes, podiatrists, dental hygienists and ophthalmologists. The children also play various learning games. Says Aroom, “These activities help boost the children’s confidence that they can survive without their parents. In many cases, they are the only child in their school class with diabetes, which is very challenging for them. At Shore Kids Camp, there is a lot of sharing and learning from each other, so they feel less alone in the challenges they face daily,” she adds.
Aroom also notes that Shore Kids Camp helps parents by providing needed respite from round-the-clock vigilance, as she explains: “They can relax knowing that their child is having fun in a safe environment, and they also appreciate the opportunity to meet and talk with other families coping with Type 2 diabetes.”
The camp fee is $75 per child and the registration deadline is July 7, 2017. For further details, contact Wynne Aroom, 410-822-1000, ext. 5286, or waroom@umm.edu.
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