'They know how to take care of us well': How this summer camp keeps kids with diabetes safe

ASSONET — For most of the day, Camp Jack operates much like your typical summer camp. Children kick balls around. They shoot basketballs. They swim in the pools. They do arts and crafts, play fun games.

But Camp Jack — the camp within a camp at Camp Welch — is not your typical summer camp. At 10 a.m., at noon, and then again at 2 p.m., recreational activities stop cold. Campers gather at designated spots to have their blood sugar level measured.

Camp Jack is for children, ages 5 through 14, who have Type 1 diabetes, as well as for their family members and friends. The camp, named for the late local businessman Jack Rua, is about fun, but also about providing a Type 1 diabetes education to everyone involved.

“I like it because all the activities we do are really fun,” said camper Leo Papas, 9,of Dartmouth. “Everybody’s so responsible about my diabetes, and my blood sugar, and all the carbs. And they’re always looking out in case I’m low, high. I feel really safe here.”

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Camp Jack runs for six weeks, with the majority of campers spending multiple weeks. Previously located in Rehoboth, the camp found at new home, at Camp Welch, five years ago and the fit has been tailor-made. Camp Jack occupies the delightfully breezy and shady area of the cabins, which the Boys and Girls Club years ago used for overnight campers. While operating separately from the Boys and Girls Club’s summer camp, Camp Jack is given by the Boys and Girls Club significant access to the two pools, to the basketball courts and other recreational areas.

The staff includes three nurses. All staff members are trained by a Certified Diabetes Educator. Camp Jack attendees must either be youths with Type 1 diabetes or a friend or family member. Many of the camp mentors (paid staff age 16 and older) are themselves former campers. Camp counselors must be 18 or older with at least one year of college to their credit.

“Our goal is to create friendship among children who are diagnosed with a chronic illness, who, in their classrooms tend to be the only student who may be identified in their school as a Type 1 diabetic," said Melissa St. Pierre, camp director and director of workforce and community partnerships at People Incorporated. “We help kids learn to manage and create friendships through diabetes care.”

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The camp — previously known as Camp Kyle — has existed for more than a quarter-century. It started at the Fall River Rod & Gun Club in Westport, moved to the Boy Scouts of America’s Camp Buxton in Rehoboth before before being welcomed to Camp Welch by the Boys and Girls Club. In 2009, the Diabetes Association, Inc. became an affiliate of People Incorporated. Jack Rua was a driving force behind the development of the DAI and served as its president.

The United Way, said People Inc. COO Bill Perkins, has provided extensive financial support to Camp Jack.

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What the campers think

“I love Camp Jack because of the people you meet here,” said 14-year-old Fall River camper Jordan Thiboutot, of Somerset, who has attended since she was 8 and wants to be a counselor. “They’re just very nice and accepting. And I feel like these are friends I’m going to know for a long, long time, and they’re just truly amazing. The games and activities we do here are incredible. And the counselors and CITs (counselors in training), and mentors, they’re supportive, they’re helpful, and they’re kind, and they’re funny. And they really know how to take care of us well.”

Camp assistant director Ethan Lazaro, a 2019 Somerset Berkley Regional High School graduate, said the Camp Jack education applies not only to the campers.

“I’ve learned a lot more than an average person would,” he said, “not only just from the diabetes training that we get, but just from experiencing what it’s like with the kids and how each person is different with each diagnosis. Not one kid is the same when it comes to Type 1 diabetes.”

Camper Dean Roberts, 7, of Raynham, gladly shared his thoughts on Camp Jack.

“The activities are so fun that I just like it,” he said. “There are a lot of kind people. And we get to play a lot. We get to swim a lot. And we get to go on the playground, do some basketball.”

The Jack Rua Invitational golf tournament, to benefit the DAI and Camp Jack, is scheduled for Sept. 13 at Crestwood Country Club in Rehoboth.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Camp Jack: Summer fun and games, plus type 1 diabetes care for kids