EUSTIS, Fla. \u2014 For children living with serious medical conditions, Camp Boggy Creek offers something many of them rarely experience: a week where they can simply be kids.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit camp in Eustis has spent the past 30 years providing free, medically safe summer camp experiences for children with chronic and serious illnesses. Behind those unforgettable weeks are hundreds of volunteers, including pediatric cardiologist Dr. Peace Chike Madueme.<\/p>\n
Madueme, who works at Nemours Children\u2019s Hospital, volunteers at Camp Boggy Creek each summer, caring for campers while also sharing in their adventures.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really enriching. It\u2019s really rewarding,\u201d Madueme said. \u201cCamp Boggy Creek has the saying of feeling safe, feeling respected, and feeling loved, and that mantra is also true for the volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n
For campers like Ariana Rincon, the camp is a place where medical appointments and diagnoses take a back seat to friendships, crafts and outdoor activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is pretty nice here, and it\u2019s just a really fun environment where you can be active and meet your friends,\u201d Ariana said.<\/p>\n
Camp Boggy Creek is designed specifically for children with serious medical illnesses, allowing them to participate in traditional summer camp activities with around-the-clock medical support from volunteer physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals.<\/p>\n
Camp CEO Patrick Chapin said volunteers like Madueme play an essential role in making those experiences possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Peace is one of our great volunteers,\u201d Chapin said. \u201cWe have volunteers from many of the local hospitals who come out for a week, and their specialty aligns with the specialty of our camp during that session.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the past three decades, Camp Boggy Creek has served nearly 100,000 children and family members, creating a place where campers can focus less on their medical conditions and more on making lifelong memories.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice for them because they get to see the kids having fun, not just in their hospital or in their clinic,\u201d Chapin said.<\/p>\n
For Ariana, having medical professionals at camp doesn\u2019t make the experience feel clinical. Instead, it helps everyone feel comfortable enough to enjoy every moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s here to help if anyone gets sick or needs to get patched up, which makes it funner,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Madueme says seeing his young patients outside of the hospital is one of the most rewarding parts of volunteering.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the kids absolutely love seeing their doctors or nurses,\u201d he said. \u201cThey feel comfortable, they feel very safe, and it allows them to open up and forget about whatever condition they have dealt with their entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n
For one week each summer, Camp Boggy Creek gives children the chance to trade hospital rooms for campfires, treatments for adventures, and worries for laughter\u2014a mission made possible by volunteers like Dr. Peace Chike Madueme, this week\u2019s Everyday Hero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EUSTIS, Fla. \u2014 For children living with serious medical conditions, Camp Boggy Creek offers something many of them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3076,28293,54687,1548,2174,115,139,141,140,835],"class_list":["post-332680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-good-news","tag-curtis-mccloud","tag-everyday-heroes","tag-good-news","tag-lake-county","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}