The Camp All In This Together at Camp Kindle in Alberta provides a week-long medically supervised summer camp for kids with arthritis. Kids with juvenile arthritis have felt left out when it comes to the annual summer activities other children get to experience. With camps like this one, they don’t have to feel restricted by their condition.
Some kids develop arthritis before the age of 16. Juvenile arthritis causes persistent joint pain accompanied by swelling and stiffness. This can cause complications later on in life such as growth problems, joint damage, and eye inflammation. There are many other forms of juvenile arthritis, and they can cause muscle weakness, heart complications, skin rashes and hardening, and fatigue along with the common symptoms. Most medications concentrate on mitigating these symptoms, as there is no cure for it currently.
The Arthritis Society in partnership with the Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta host the annual camp west of Water Valley. For a whole week, the campers (aged eight to 17) are taking part in many outdoor physical activities under the supervision of medical professionals. Some of their exercises include archery, swimming, yoga, and navigating a ropes course. This year, 63 kids attended the camp, and it is the 3rd year in a row it was held.
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In Canada alone, roughly 24,000 kids live with some form of juvenile arthritis. Programs like this camp is important for these kids to understand that they aren’t limited by their condition. They learn that they are able to participate in physical activities just like kids without arthritis, they just need a little assistance and guidance. Other than that, kids learn that they aren’t alone in dealing with their arthritis; there are many other kids like them who cope in different ways. Through the other kids they meet in camp, those with juvenile arthritis can learn from others and feel solidarity in dealing with their symptoms.
The children in the camp are all happily enjoying the summer while they can. They no longer have to miss out on the summer activities typical Canadian kids do, and they have some fun camp stories to tell their friends as well when they return to school. The only flaw with this camp is there aren’t more of them across the country.