Camp Oasis

Camp Oasis is a summer camp that is sponsored by the CCFA for kids with Crohn's and Colitis.

Having worked at a summer camp during college, I totally support camp and the positive benefits children receive by going to summer camp. The kids that I worked with at camp spent the 10 months of the school year just counting down to the 2 summer months that they would spend at Trail's End Camp. And once they were there, it was such a supportive and loving environment where they could really be themselves and just be kids. And these were healthy, typical children from loving home. But just the summer camp experience for kids is something I feel strongly about!

I'm excited to be fundraising for the CCFA because of the Camp Oasis program they provide! I couldn't imagine being an elementary or middle school aged kid with Crohn's Disease. I mean, as an adult, it's bad enough that I'm in the bathroom sometimes 7+ times a day, and that I vomit, and bleed, and have to give myself shots, and have to take 10+ horse pills a day. Could you imagine going through that as a kid? And to try to fit in, and tell your friends and teachers why you're sick, and why you are in and out of the hospital, why you have to take medication on a daily basis, and to just try to live a normal life while going through all of that?

At Camp Oasis, the kids have a chance to be normal kids -- without the stigma of living with a chronic disease -- and have other kids and adults who get it.

There are some great quotes and photos from Camp Oasis that I'd love to share. You should feel good that when you donate to the CCFA, your money is not only going to research for Crohn's and Colitis, but to other mission-funded activites like providing a safe haven like Camp Oasis for kids with IBD!

"Camp means so much. Everyone is the same and everyone has to take medicine. When someone says they know what you're going through, they really do. Even though everyone is taking medicine and stuff, camp in a way lets us forget about our diseases."

"Without Camp Oasis, I don't think I'd be comfortable having Crohn's Disease at all. I know I definitely wouldn't be open about it, and by meeting all these other kids just like me, I've learned that it's ok to be different and people will just accept me for who I am, and if they don't, than they aren't worth it. I could never not go back to camp because of the amazing friendships I've made over the past few years, and because camp is probably the highlight of my whole summer."