Sleep-Away Camp

A typical day at camp involves fun, excitement and friendship! We start and end the day raising and lowering the American flag. In the morning, we travel as a cabin group to different activities. There’s a choice period as well when campers can decide for themselves which activity they’d like to do. We have a rest hour after lunch and swim in the pool every afternoon. The evening activity is a camp-wide event.  Campers shower every day, and have three meals and two snacks per day. We end the day in the cabin with a session called Talkabetics. It’s a chance for campers to share their diabetes stories with their peers and counselors. There is never a dull moment at camp!

Our activities include:

• Zip-line

• Climbing wall

• Low-ropes course

• Archery

• Arts & Crafts

• Sports (Basketball, Baseball, Gaga Ball, Soccer, Volleyball, etc.)

• Evening Activities (lip sync, counselor hunts, bonfires, dutch auction, etc.)

• Special days

• Themed meals (Hat lunch, lumberjack breakfast, twin lunch, etc.)

Activities are never the same year-to-year as we hire different staff with unique talents and interests every season!

Campers live in cabins with 8-9 campers and 3-4 counselors. Each cabin features cubbies for each camper’s belongings. Showers are taken in a separate designated building. We encourage visiting us for Open House to take a look inside a cabin and get a feel for camp life!

Daytime lows are treated with glucose tablets and packaged snacks, while nighttime lows are treated with juice and chocolate milk. Sugar-based treatment is always followed by a complex carbohydrate to help stabilize blood sugars, preventing rebound hypoglycemia and ensuring campers can continue enjoying camp activities. We practice pre-meal bolusing, and are conscientious of insulin on board between meals, as well as activity-related bloodsugar spikes.

We have a full medical staff thoroughly trained in diabetes care:

• Nurses scheduled around the clock.

• A Pediatric Endocrinologist and a Resident are available 24/7 to handle any medical issues.

The Pediatric Endocrinologist evaluates each camper’s blood sugars every day and makes insulin adjustments as needed.

Tech Facilitators thoroughly familiar with diabetes treatment technology and help campers with both infusion site and CGM sensor changes; they provide whatever level of support your child needs from performing the entire process to supervising your child doing the changes.

Most of our counselors have T1D themselves and many grew up at Camp Nejeda; any counselor who doesn’t have T1D gets specialized in-depth training by Diabetes Educators.

All Counselors and Medical Staff are trained in our specific treatment protocols. They carry backpacks containing a glucose monitor, single-use lancets, glucose tablets, insta-glucose and snacks to treat low blood sugars.

• If you have medical questions, please call the Health Center (a number will be provided during intake). Phones are manned around the clock except at meals times when our entire medical staff is with the campers. Should you call when we’re at a meal, please leave a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. The medical needs of all of our campers is our top priority and our staff will get back to you as soon as they possibly can.

• If you have non-medical questions, please call the office at 973-383-2611. Phones are generally staffed weekdays during normal business hours with occasional exceptions, i.e.  during meal times. Should you call  and get voicemail, please leave a message with your name, child’s name, cabin and spec number, your question(s), and how to reach you. Office staff will get back to you with an answer as soon as they can.

• This is an opportunity for you to take a deep breath, relax knowing that your child is being cared for very well and you can get a well-deserved break from the relentless everyday demands and worry and that come along with a T1D diagnosis. It’s a great time for both you and your child to take a break, have some worry-free fun and come back together refreshed and with new insights to dealing with T1D.

• Even with our medical staff carefully monitoring camper CGMs around the clock, in most cases the Counselor is already addressing the issue when the nurse reaches out to them. If you were to be concerned about a reading and reach out to us, it would already be resolved.

• We make sure all campers have food they’ll eat and come away from each meal satiated.

• We are a nut-free camp and campers are not permitted to bring or receive packages with their own food.

• There is a dedicated prep space in our Kitchen for Gluten-free foods only so there is no risk of cross-contamination. Our Dietitian and your child’s Counselors are aware of your child’s diagnosis and makes sure they eat the right foods. The menu is displayed in the Dining Hall with carb counts for each item and items are labeled whether they’re Gluten-free, vegetarian, etc.

• For each meal, alternate options are available, including a salad bar at lunch and dinner.

• Before each meal, campers decide what they plan on eating, carbs are counted and a pre-meal bolus is given. Counselors help campers with serving sizes and carb counts. If a camper wants to eat more, the extra carbs are counted and they receive a post-meal bolus to cover.

• Cabins have 8-9 camper beds, 2-partitioned sections for Senior Counselors and a set of bunk beds for additional counselors.

• Each camper gets a bunk and a cubby. There’s room under the bed for storage and room for a footlocker at the end of the bed.

• Showers are a short distance away in the Shower Building.

• There’s also a mini-fridge in the counselor area to store low treatment.

• Campers can send (snail) mail home.

• Parents and family can mail letters, cards and packages to campers.

• Parents and family can see daily photos taken at camp and uploaded onto Bunk1 daily. To either download photos or send emails to campers through Bunk1 for a small fee.

• We keep our campers busy which helps to prevent homesickness.

• Our counselors are trained on how to help campers with homesickness.

• If a camper is having a persistent difficult time with homesickness, we have mental health professionals who can help.

• It is our policy that we do not allow campers to call home or for parents to speak directly to campers because often times, it makes it more difficult for your child to get past the homesickness when they hear your voice. In severe cases of homesickness, the Camp Director will call home to alert the parent/guardian that the camper is having a hard time and come up with a plan of action to help the camper.

• Campers must provide their own Insulin Pump and CGM supplies and any prescription medications they take other than insulin.

• Most insulins and insulin pen brands are provided by camp. When filling out the Health History Form during registration, if the insulin your child uses is NOT in the drop-down menu, please contact us to see if we have that insulin.

• Insulin syringes and pen needles are provided by camp.