Camp New Beginnings in Lubbock, Texas
A safe place for kids with diabetes to join in the fun
A diabetes diagnosis can be overwhelming - especially for children. Parents and children must quickly adjust to a new lifestyle of monitoring blood sugar levels, counting carbohydrates, and giving injections. While there have been significant advances in blood sugar monitoring and insulin pumps, children may feel isolated in treating and managing their diabetes.
Covenant Children’s hosted a week-long, awesome summer day camp for kids in our region living with diabetes. The campers enjoyed daily activities all around Lubbock, but they especially appreciated the opportunity to make new friends who also live with diabetes. Covenant hosted this camp free of charge with medical professionals overseeing all activities.
Covenant Children’s and the Covenant Health Foundation responded to Lubbock recently losing our local chapter of the American Diabetes Association by hosting this camp.
“We recognize the value and impact that a camp for children with diabetes holds. Kids with diabetes, and their families, need to know and see they are not alone,” said Brittny Ayola, Covenant Children’s PICU nurse manager and diabetes education program coordinator.
As a diabetic herself, Ayola said when she was growing up, there were no camps in Lubbock, so she had to go out of town for similar experiences. Ayola said it can feel very isolating to have a chronic condition that takes daily management and being able to do normal activities with other children who also have diabetes can have a vast impact.
Covenant Children’s is the only independently licensed, freestanding, children’s hospital in West Texas and eastern New Mexico and is one of only eight members of the Children’s Hospital Association of Texas.
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