What do you think of when you hear “summer camp”? Fun things, right? Games. S’mores. Bonfires and singing. Staying up late. For parents of kids with epilepsy, we think…well, feel is maybe the more accurate word…we feel anxiety. Morning and nighttime medication doses. Rescue meds (Valium to stop seizures that don’t stop on their own). When campers stay up too late, we worry about seizures, maybe in the lake while our child is swimming.
Enter Camp Oz and the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota!
The joys of summer camp – with seizures
I just looked up their website to give you the history of the camp, and I find myself so overwhelmed with both the fear of camp for my son and the immense gratitude I have for how seriously EFMN takes both the safety of its campers and the desire to give kids with epilepsy as full a summer camp experience as possible…well, I’m crying.
“The Epilepsy Foundation’s Camp Programs provide safe, educational, and fun camping experiences for children and teens with epilepsy. With on-site medical staff and counselors trained in seizure first aid, campers and their parents can rest assured they will be safe and enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“To make sure a camp experience is accessible for youth of all abilities, we offer Camp Oz and Family Camp that are designed to accommodate youth with different needs.“
“With on-site medical staff and counselors trained in seizure first aid”…sigh…
Then what really got me:
“With Camp Oz and Family Camp being virtual this year, we have created the Seizure Smart Camps program, which will give youth with epilepsy and seizures opportunities for in-person camp programs and other virtual camp programs across Minnesota. At least 75% of camp staff will be trained by the start of summer.”
That was followed by a listing of camps throughout Minnesota that have trained staff in seizure first aid!
This is a new EFMN initiative this year. We are all struggling with different working conditions due to covid, and nonprofits are struggling with fundraising that couldn’t be done in person for over a year yet this organization is doing more than usual!
Going above and beyond
As I type this, Cody is actually attending EFMN summer camp. It’s on zoom this year but what a week they have planned. The kids selected from a variety of incredible sessions each day. Cody selected, among other things, clay animal making (it was mostly boys – so they made monsters), two STEM activities (with marshmallows no less!), music, and a session on paleontology with the Royal Tyrrell Museum outside of Calgary. Yes, Canada! Cody is obsessed with Godzilla and dinosaurs right now – how perfect is that?!
Did I mention that the camp director called me several weeks ago to ask what gluten free snacks they could include in Cody’s personalized Camp in a Box kit? They didn’t want him missing out on the snacks the other kids would receive. Wow.
Five years ago, our family and another family formed the Kourageous Kids walk team for the yearly EFMN fundraiser to support the organization that had brought us together and supported our families in our epilepsy journeys. One of our fundraising efforts is to host a concert, just over a month from now, on Sunday, July 25th in White Bear Lake, MN. It is an acoustic, in-person concert with national recording artist Jason Gray, Cody’s favorite singer, as he performs his newest album Order Disorder Reorder.
100% of ticket sales benefit the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota, funding programs such as their summer camps. Tickets are available here if you are interested. If you are not able to attend the concert, you can also donate to our Kourageous Kids team here. If you are not able to donate, we understand and hope you enjoy Jason’s music through the links below!
Read below for more information about Jason’s new album, which he will be performing in its entirety. After a year of disorder, we could all use some hope of reorder in our lives.
Order Disorder Reorder
“Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
John 12:24
“The human spirit is something like a muscle in that it must be pushed to its limits and torn down in order to grow. Three words to describe this process of transformation are order, disorder, and reorder.
Order is when everything is going according to our plan. We’re using all that we’ve learned so far to put our lives together with stability and security.
Disorder is when our plan falls apart. We find we weren’t as in control as we thought we were and there is more we need to learn. Reminded of our vulnerability, we are broken down and opened up enough to meet with God in a profound way.
Reorder is when we emerge from disorder transformed by what we learned and by having met with God in a way that changed us. We are wiser, kinder, more humble, and stronger than before.
Today’s reorder becomes tomorrow’s order, and the cycle begins again. Recognizing this helps me panic less and trust more.
I wrote some songs to explore these themes and decided to release them in three volumes: ‘Order,’ ‘Disorder,’ and ‘Reorder,’ giving time and space for reflecting on one part of the journey before digging into the next.”
~Jason Gray
Listen to all of Jason’s music including the full Order Disorder Reorder album on YouTube or Spotify.
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