Knox County camp assures kids with diabetes that they’re not alone
DANVILLE, Ohio — Just before lunchtime on Tuesday, eight teenage girls gathered in their cabin at Camp Hamwi and chattered happily about the morning’s activities: hiking, ziplining, horseback riding and more.
The less-typical nature of the camp, however, was reflected in the next item on the printed daily schedule:
Every child attending Camp Hamwi has diabetes, a condition in which the body doesn’t properly process food for use as energy.
Since 1968, the Central Ohio Diabetes Association has organized the summer camp, both to show young people that the disorder needn’t limit what they do and to surround the children "Spy" (2015) "Salt" (2010) “Atomic Blonde” (2017) "La Femme Nikita" (1990) "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (2005)
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with others who face similar challenges.
“This is one place where kids with diabetes can be in the majority,” said Darlene Honigford, director of the Knox County camp, “because they might be the only child in their school with diabetes.”
Developmentally, she said, children need to “feel connected and feel that bond with kids who are also living with this chronic disease.”
“Camp is one place where everybody gets it, where everyone is living with the same condition.”
So it was that each girl in the cabin on Tuesday sat on her bunk, pricked her finger, swiped blood on a test strip and inserted it into a glucose monitor.
Cabin counselors Chloe Romaker and Katelyn Martin, who also have diabetes, recorded the results.
The girls then filled out meal cards indicating their lunch preferences, with each item listing the number of grams of carbohydrates it contains. Carbohydrates affect blood-sugar levels more than other nutrients do.
At the dining hall, before campers could eat, they had to check in with a medicalstaff member, who looked at their glucose levels and determined whether they needed additional insulin.
Camper Aryonna Greene, a rising eighth-grader at Africentric Early College in Columbus, said she appreciates the scheduled checks.
“We’re all doing the same thing, and there’s time to do it,” said Greene, 13. “It’s not like in school where you have to go to the nurse to check my sugar and you miss out on things.”
Camp Hamwi — named for co-founder Dr. George Hamwi — features two weeklong sessions, each drawing about 70 campers. The 2017 session for kids ages 13 to 17 wraps up Saturday; the other, for ages 7 to 12, will begin Sunday.
A session costs about $ 550 per child, but Honigford said an endowed fund helps cover the costs for children who otherwise couldn’t afford it. No child is turned away.
Camp Hamwi originated near Loudonville, in Ashland County, but was moved in 1984 to its present location on 700 acres in Knox County, about 65 miles northeast of Columbus.
Some children return for years, with many continuing their affiliation by becoming camp counselors or staff members.
Hilliard resident Kent Cheek, now 53, first attended the camp in 1970. As a camper, counselor or staff member, he sustained a 39-year tie with the place — until 2009, his final year.
“You’ve got to give back to those who give to you,” Cheek said. “If everybody in my peer group had just gone off and done their own thing, camp would not have been as strong as it is today.”
Cheek’s connection to Camp Hamwi deepened anew in 1995, when diabetes was diagnosed in the oldest of his three children, Leslie, and, two years later, she started attending the camp.
Leslie, now 25, will serve as a counselor next week.
“It’s something I look forward to every year,” Leslie Cheek said. “It’s really rewarding. It’s something I’m truly passionate about.”
Throughout the camp’s 50- year history, diabetes treatment has seen tremendous advancement. Kent Cheek remembers that, at the time of his diagnosis, his parents were told that he could be blind by age 15 and dead by 20.
Testing at the time, he said, consisted of an elaborate process involving a urine sample.
Nowadays, many campers have pumps that provide a constant level of insulin, with the children able to easily give themselves an extra dose when needed.
Like Cheek and his daughter, Noah and Krista Parker of Canal Winchester represent the enduring bonds formed at Camp Hamwi.
Noah, 33, has been attending camp since 1991; Krista, 31, since 1996. Both have been involved every year since as campers, counselors or staff members.
The two began dating in 2004 and were married in 2010 — in a camp wedding, the site chosen in part because it is roughly equidistant from their hometowns (Noah grew up in Groveport; Krista, in Canton) and also because of the significant role Camp Hamwi has played in their lives.
Noah is the camp program director; Krista is the “charge nurse,” overseeing the 12 to 15 members of the camp’s medical staff. Most staff members, Honigford said, receive a stipend; the physicians ( six or eight this year) volunteer their time.
During the run of the camp last year, the Parkers learned that they were expecting their first child: Sam, their son, is now 5 months old.
“Camp is basically the center of our lives,” Krista Parker said. “If we would ever renew our vows, I would want to rent it out for a weekend and have all our friends up.”
Everyone involved with Camp Hamwi, she said, “is just one big family, basically.”
“You just keep coming back because these kids draw you.”
Some other related facts:
In 2015, more than 30 million Americans (including about 900,000 Ohioans and 200,000 central Ohioans) had diabetes.
Over time, high blood sugar can lead to problems such as blindness, heart disease, kidney failure, stroke, nerve damage and leg amputations.
There are two main forms of diabetes: Type 1 is usually diagnosed in children and young adults. Only about 5 percent of people with diabetes have Type 1, in which the body does not produce insulin, which must be given through injections or a pump.
Type 2 diabetes is far more common, and results from the body not making enough insulin. Diet modifications and exercise usually are the first treatment options, but other medications or insulin therapy might be added, too.
Sources: Central Ohio Diabetes Association, American Diabetes Association