Choosing a Summer Camp

I don't live in California, I live in Florida.  Contact your local Epilepsy Services for information on Summer Camps.  My son goes to "The Boggy Creek Gang" Camp every summer.  "The Boggy Creek Gang"  is a series of several camps founded by Paul Newman and General Swartzkoff for children with childhood illnesses. They also have "The Hole in the Wall Gang" The have one week each summer for children with Epilepsy.  They are "wonderful" and it gives my son who is now 13 a chance to interact with other kids with epilepsy.  The camp is free and funded by many local generous corporations.  They maintain a complete medical staff, very familiar with epilepsy and they make certain he has his medications and that all his activities are well supervised.  I've never met a more caring group of people dedicated to making childrens lives fun and carefree.

My daughter has attended Camp Candlelight, aka Camp ASCCAA on Lake Martin, in Jackson's Gap, Alabama for six years. Alabama's Special Camp for Children and Adults is attended by children with epilepsy who live in Northwest Florida and Alabama. My daughter has enjoyed her experiences at the camp, and now that she is a teen, is considering a position as a counselor in training. Epilepsy Camp has meant so much to her and she feels that she is the best person to assist younger campers because she has experienced similar situations and can relate to their needs. As a parent, I traveled to the camp, met the staff and counselors, and volunteered at our local agency to ride with the campers and help with registration. It was so much fun, and I saw first hand how my chilld would be cared for, saw the dormitories, met the couselors, and was able to meet other parents from the surrounding areas. Also, for the peace of mind for parents from my local agency, I could offer a first hand account to the parents who were not able to visit. Not only do the kids enjoy their stay, the parents learn that their child can cope without mom and dad for a few days. The kids also form friendships that last beyond the week of camp and look forward to seeing each other every summer. It is hard to let go, and my daughter was homesick for a day the first year that she went, but that quickly disappeared.Camp will always be a part of her life. I would hightly recommend it . It is not so much that we are labeling our kids as different or disabled, we are offereing a safety net of support and cameraderie for a very complex and misunderstood medical condition. I have faced so much ignorance from well meaning professionals and friends who did more psycholgical harm to my child because they were not educated properly about the special needs (medical and psychological) of people with epilepsy. I know that my child needs to be in environments that will allow her to flourish and become the person she is intended to be.That is what epilepsy camp does best.