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