Graduate dietetics student Aharon Roberts said he first came to Diabetes Youth Foundation Camp Until a Cure as a résumé builder. He quickly discovered, between learning more about juvenile diabetes and connecting with campers, that the camp he had viewed as bullet point on his résumé would eventually be what he strived for in a job.
DYF Camp Until a Cure houses diabetic children between the ages of 7 and 15 for anywhere between one to three weeks. Medical staff, counselors and junior counselors live in cabins with the kids to make sure they keep their diabetes in check during their time at camp.
Roberts said a great thing about the camp is the campers don't have to worry about being different or being bullied because of their diabetes.
"It is a camp where everyone is normal," he said. "There's not outsiders."
Any given night the camp houses 80 children in a total of 10 cabins. Two medical staff and two counselors or junior counselors live in the cabins with the eight or less campers to take them around camp during the day and help monitor their diabetes at each meal and during the night.
Roberts is one of six medical staff at the camp this week who is a graduate dietetics student at Ball State. For summer internships, dietetics majors have to do 13 weeks of clinical at Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne. The students have the option to work at the camp as medical staff for a week instead of doing clinicals that week.
None of the current Ball State medical staff are diabetics. Other medical staff include dietetic and pharmaceutical students from Butler University and Purdue University.
Amanda Bolin, graduate dietetics student, said the experience was exceedingly different from the classroom.
"Typically in our classes we learn a lot more about type 2 diabetes," she said. "That concerns me because I didn't know if I could properly care for [the children with type 1 diabetes]."
Roberts said the first-time graduate students learn an incredible amount about diabetes during the week.
"Most of the students learn more in a week than a whole year reading a book," he said. "You get to see what actually works. It is the same [experience] for the kids."
If the kids have high blood sugar levels before going to bed, the medical staff in the cabin gets up at midnight and at 3 a.m. to check their blood sugar levels again to make sure they stay in a safe range throughout the night.
Executive director Jenna Holt said campers used to have to stay at the camp for a minimum of two weeks because it took about that long to stabilize the kids' blood sugar levels. With new technology and insulin methods, the medical staff is able to do it in a week.
A lot of the campers are young or newly diagnosed and still need assistance with their every day care. The camp not only provides this help, but they also supply blood sugar testing supplies and insulin.
Campers who treat their diabetes with injections rather than an insulin pump have the opportunity to try putting in a site for an insulin pump. Even though the medical staff aren't diabetics, they try putting a pump site in themselves once to see what it feels like.
Holt said the medical staff isn't always about work, though. They attend different activities with the campers throughout the day.
The day is broken into five periods between breakfast and lunch. Activities include arts and crafts, diabetes education, nature center, pool time and cabin activity. Campers can use cabin activity time to play basketball or other sports, clean their cabins or prepare skits or other activities for campfires. Campers gather for campfires every night.
Campers also spend a day working on a ropes course, where they tight rope walk and zip line down a rope about 55 to 60 feet above ground.
During diabetes education, campers learn about different topics that go hand in hand with their diabetes. Topics vary depending on the age group of the kids.
"When they come here they are getting hands on training to take care of their diabetes," Holt said.
The campers eat three meals and two snacks each day. The medical staff assists them in counting their carbohydrates so they know how much insulin to use.
Counselors also help out a lot with the campers. Emily Boss, junior dietetics major, is a counselor for the second year in a row. The difference is most of the counselors have diabetes so they can be more personal with campers.
"This is my life," Boss said. "I deal with diabetes every day. If they [have low or high blood sugar levels], I deal with it. I've never seen it as a stressful situation."
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