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A place for every kid to be a kid: Camp Hopewell’s diabetes camp celebrates 50th year
Camp Hopewell's philosophy of uninterrupted play has encouraged kids with Type 1 Diabetes to learn to manage the chronic condition and become their best selves
There’s a place in the woods where a kid can be a kid.
And that’s big for the kids whose lives have revolved around tracking their blood sugar, physical activity, eating habits, and insulin needs.
“Camp Hopewell is the one place that reminds you what your childhood should be like,” said Alexandria Robertson, a participant at Camp Hopewell from 2016 to 2022.
A mission of the St. Andrew Presbytery, Camp Hopewell in Mississippi celebrated its 50th year of Diabetes Camp. Kids with Type 1 diabetes sleep in cabins and spend their days full of outdoor fun. The camp philosophy: uninterrupted play. Instead of whisking a child away to a private space to change an insulin pump amid a game of kickball or while fishing from canoes, the child adjusts their needs where they are.
This year the Presbytery welcomed nearly 60 campers with Type 1 diabetes. Most of the campers live across the southeastern United States, but some have traveled farther for the chance to participate in summer camp and leave home for the first time. For many of the children, it’s the first time that they are learning to manage their diabetes on their own.
“It was so special to me as a kid to go to a place that understood me, (and) we get to have a fresh start,” said Alexandria Robertson of her time as a camper at Camp Hopewell. “It gave me a place to be the best version of me.”
Robertson was diagnosed with Type 1 on Christmas Eve in 2016 at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis. At the time, she was preparing to perform the Nutcracker ballet with her dance club. Instead, she lost 20 pounds in two weeks, had no energy, and could not keep anything down except water.
Robertson said she remembers adults telling her that she could keep her chronic condition a secret. She felt embarrassed.
”Are people going to see me differently?” she thought.
It was “Nurse Madison,” a nurse practitioner at the hospital that told Robertson’s family about Camp Hopewell. The nurse helped Robertson understand her new medical needs and encouraged her to think beyond the chronic condition.
Six months later, Robertson was at camp. She found herself emersed in the talent show, where she found the courage to play a ukulele and sing in front of a crowd for the first time. Now, a theater student at the University of Southern Mississippi, Robertson still spends her summers at Hopewell as a camp counselor on the worship team.
“I had the best time ever. I really loved just getting to be silly with my kids,” she said.
Several counselors at Camp Hopewell’s Diabetes Camp, like Alexandria Robertson (left) and Tucker Dunlap (right) are former campers who have become role models and mentors to younger campers. (Photo courtesy of Alexandria Robertson)
Hopewell’s philosophy was developed by camp founder Dr. George Burghen who believed that children with Type 1 needed more than clinical visits. According to the camp’s summer newsletter, Volunteers and nurses like Dr. Rebecca Winsett, camp director and cabin nurse for 35 years, dedicated time to prepare carb counting sheets, snacks, and 4 a.m. blood sugar checks to maintain child safety while optimizing much needed fun.
Type 1 diabetes prevents the body from producing insulin. Symptoms of the condition include blurred vision, nausea and vomiting, increased urination, and abnormal thirst. Managing the chronic condition is specific to the individual’s needs and often includes hourly fingerstick testing, following a specific diet, and monitoring blood sugar levels. Constant physical activity, which the campers experience daily, can also affect these levels. Foregoing the hourly clinical checks can result in hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, or ketoacidosis– a life-threatening condition. Long-term, uncontrolled diabetes can lead to heart diseases, kidney disease, nerve damage, and other serious conditions.
Winsett joined the camp following her graduate studies, as she tried to figure out ways to prevent 20-year-olds with Type 1 from kidney failure.
David Mills, the current executive director of Camp Hopewell said the campers build strong friendships. He described their goodbyes as emotional, though they beam with pride going back to their parents in their newfound confidence in their ability to manage their own care.
“At the end when they are getting ready to go home, there’s a lot of tears,” he said. “And maybe more so than our other camps because there’s this bonding that happens between these kids.”
The camp’s philosophy encourages autonomy, so that the kids no longer feel limited by their condition.
“We believe that real life doesn’t stop for diabetes and they’re going to need to know how to handle those moments wherever they are,” he said.
Campers with Type 1 Diabetes at Camp Hopewell’s Diabetes Camp experience uninterupted play and are treated for their chronic condition without being removed from the group. (Photo by Camp Hopewell)
Hopewell pulls dietetic interns from Ole Miss and Southern University, and partners with numerous organizations to maintain the camp. The local Presbytery and churches throughout the Presbyterian Church (USA) have also been strong supporters of the program.
The strong support system, which includes counselors with Type 1 diabetes, has also influenced the campers for the better.
Tucker Dunlap, a former camper, said he wanted to be a counselor so that he could be a role model to others. He remembers watching a volunteer counselor change their own pump in 2017 and wondered if he could do the same.
“I thought ‘He is so cool, he can do his own (care)’,” said Dunlap. “… Camp really changed (my) perspective because I had to change my pump and I hadn’t done it before. The counselor sat me down and we changed my pump together.”
Dunlap grew up in a small town in Arkansas and was diagnosed at La Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis at the age of four.
“All of my memories really start at Le Boenhuer. For me, my life just kind of starts with diabetes,” he said.
Since he was diagnosed at a young age, his parents managed his care. Nurse Madison, who also worked with Robertson, encouraged his family to consider Camp Hopewell. They sent him to camp at age 10, and it was the first time he interacted with other kids who had been diagnosed with Type 1.
Now a social work student and resident assistant at Three Rivers College in Missouri, Dunlap said he appreciates the camp for the normalization it brings and the joyful, familial-like bonds that the participants share.
“It’s so rough the rest of the year to have to be the only person with diabetes, but then you get to go to camp and you’re not alone,” he said. “Everything that you do in your daily life is just normalized. And you’re finally the majority, you’re the normal person.”
Direct Relief has shipped over $155,000 worth of medical aid to Camp Hopewell since 2013.
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