Health Discoveries Winter 2020 | Page 15

pride ourselves: we’ve never turned anybody away for finances,” Greg Fox says. About half the campers come for free, thanks to financial aid, and the camp gets donations of all the insulin needed during the week, he says. When Ali takes calls from parents worried about the cost, he adds, “Her first words are, ‘We work year-round doing fundraisers and writing grants. Let’s not talk about the money. Our top priority is to get your child to camp.’” They make this effort because they’ve seen what a difference Camp Surefire makes in the lives of the kids who attend. “They know they’ve got each other,” Ali Fox says. “It’s the belonging and feeling connected and part of a family—that’s why what we do is important.” Dozens of former campers have pursued careers in health care, including nine (so far) who have gone to medical school, and many counselors and other volunteers have become certified diabetes educators. The camp has even inspired the creation of other type 1 diabetes-focused organizations. After Susan Ramsey and Steve Scott saw how Camp Surefire changed Liam’s and their own lives, they founded Rock Type 1 (rocktype1.org) to share their family’s passion for With 90 campers and 60 counselors and staff, Camp Surefire 2019 was the largest yet. climbing with the community. “We wanted to bring … both parents together, who are going through the same experiences, and also kids, to get that connection and support from each other,” Ramsey says. Just like at the camp, kids at Rock Type 1 events—which are held in climbing gyms throughout New England and outdoors, in the White Mountains—might test their blood sugar in public for the first time, and make their first friends who have the disease. Cory Zapatka was diagnosed at age 15, and attended Camp Surefire for only four years. But those summers gave him one of his closest friends, as well as “the confidence to be open and proud to have a chronic illness,” he writes in an email. Now 30 and a video director in New York, he says he’ll strike up conversations with strangers if he sees they have an insulin pump or other telltale signs of type 1. “Maybe they weren’t fortunate enough to have gone to diabetes camp or maybe they don’t have other diabetic friends,” he writes. “I hope my little gesture or conversation might be enough to let them know that they’re not alone.” ● Camp Surefire www.campsurefire.org www.facebook.com/campsurefire (401) 474-1606 [email protected] 2020 DATES: Teen Winter Camp: March 6-8 Spring Open House: April 11 Summer Camp: June 21-26 Fall Camp Reunion: September 26 HEALTH DISCOVERIES l WINTER 2020    15