Camp Nolohi focuses on children with diabetes

Summer camp for kids with diabetes

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - Kids all over the South Plains are packing their bags for the summer and heading to summer camps. Camp Nolohi is no exception, but the kids are an exception or at least exceptional.

"What we are doing here is basically just trying to teach these kids with type 1 (diabetes) or siblings with type 1 that they can live a normal life and do everything a normal kid can do, but still manage their diabetes," Carsen Miles, camp counsellor, said.

The camp gives kids with type 1 diabetes a chance to feel normal even if it is just one week out of the summer.

"They just get to come out here and feel normal," Mandie Arthus, camp director, said. "They get to be with kids that share their same struggles and lift each other up so they get to have fun and we have a huge medical staff that keeps them safe while doing so."

This camp is put on by the Lubbock Chapter of the American Diabetes Association. It includes children's favorite camp activities like kickball, water slides, and fishing, but with one exception for the kids.

"You just have to routinely check your blood sugar and you have the risk of going high and there's a risk of going low with all the physical activity," Miles said. "We have to really keep tabs on that in order to do everything."

A full medical team is always on staff checking kids blood sugar and in case of emergency because this camp does not want any low or high blood sugar hence the name--Camp Nolohi.

"A low would be considered hypoglycemia and that's when these kiddos need a rapid acting source of sugar to bring their level up," Arthus said. "We don't want highs because that just makes you feel crummy and consistent highs lead to other long term complications so we don't want no lows and no highs we want these kiddos to stay in the middle is the goal any goal for a type one diabetic."

The association says its been a success since campers have nearly doubled this year with 50 kids compared to last year with 28 kids. They're excited for the years in the future. For more information, click here.

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