FENTON, Mich. — A summer diabetes camp in Fenton is helping children manage their disease all while giving them the opportunity to have some fun.
Camp Midicha is one of the largest and only all-volunteer residential summer camp programs for children with diabetes, serving over 550 children annually.Camp Midicha has been helping kids with diabetes since 1955 and is located at Camp Copneconic in Fenton, Michigan. Each year, dozens of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dietitians and other volunteers give their time and spend at least one week at camp teaching these children the skills they need to live healthy lives.
"These camps provide them an opportunity to feel just like everybody else, because everybody that comes to an ADA camp has diabetes," American Diabetes Association executive director Stephanie Rahm Comalo said. "It is a way for them to feel like they're no longer standing out amongst the crowd."
For two weeks of the year, the camp becomes a place where children can test their sugar levels without any questions and aren't sitting out of activities alone because they have low blood sugar. For their week at camp, they learn how to manage their diabetes, have fun, create their own normal and make life-long friends. Meanwhile, parents can relax at home and know their children are taken care of.
"Initially, after diagnosis of type one diabetes, a lot of times children need essentially 24-hour care because we really need to be watching their sugars quite closely, especially during mealtime and overnight. It can be quite stressful for families," Corewell Health East pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Shabana Kalladi said. "We help children dose all the insulin with each meal...watching their sugars before and after activities, treating low sugars and high sugars."
While camp has wrapped up for 2023, Camp Midicha 2024 information is coming out in November and registration will open in February of next year.
