Camp Nejeda has grown from a “clinic in the woods” serving 20 children its first summer to a highly respected and specialized camp experience for children with diabetes serving nearly 500 campers and families each year. Today, Camp Nejeda is the tri-state region’s only full-season residential camp to exclusively serve campers with type 1 diabetes and their families. As one of just a handful in the U.S. to own its facilities, Camp Nejeda is able to offer not only a full summer season of residential diabetes camping but other programs throughout the year. Camp Nejeda continues to be operated by the Camp Nejeda Foundation, Inc., an independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose volunteer Board of Trustees are committed to helping children with type 1 diabetes live healthier, happier lives. The Camp Nejeda Foundation is active in the Diabetes Education and Camping Association, an organization with members from across the U.S., Canada, and internationally. Camp Nejeda is accredited by the American Camp Association, which evaluates over 300 standards for health, safety, and program quality, and is fully licensed by the New Jersey Department of Health. 

At Camp Nejeda, youth with diabetes are given the opportunity to live, if only for one or two weeks at a time, in a world where having diabetes is the norm and where there is no need to explain blood sugar testing, finger pricks, insulin injections, ketones, 'lows' (insulin reactions), boluses or 'carb' counting. Everyone here already understands! Here, children with diabetes are free to be just children. This normalizing of their experience combines with both formal and informal educational moments to promote good diabetes management and healthy, active living.

Look out for emails about a service project really soon with Camp Nejeda sometime in May!