Abstract
Issues surrounding both trust and identity-building play a significant role in Kirsten E. Gardner’s chapter, “‘Especially Made for Them’: Summer Camps for Diabetic Children.” As Gardner analyzes historical documents of diabetes camp life and structure, she questions the impact of the camp funders and researchers’ good intentions. She uses the charity model of disability to upend how campers, counselors, medical specialists, and philanthropists made sense of diabetes. Gardner explores diabetes camp life as a “temporal accessibly built environment apart from the world that often ignores bodies disabled by chronic illness.”
Why come to camp? I come to camp to have fun to learn how to do things that I have never done before. Camp is fun, camp is serious. Camp is the place to learn to draw up your own insulin. Camp is the place to learn how to swim good so if someone is drowning you could help them. Camp is a place you can meet new friends and be with old friends. To learn about diabetes so if I eat too much I know how much insulin to take to control myself. To be away from home for at least 2 to 4 weeks. To learn to help others when they are sick. To learn to live with different people. To meet people from different states. To learn to be together.
—Lori, Clara Barton Camper, 1975
Camp to me means LOVE, friendship, togetherness, willingness, and getting along with people. It is trying new things and making new friends. Camp to me means trying to pull myself together and have a fun time and get away for awhile. Camp is someplace to come to relax and enjoy yourself. You enjoy wildness and the outdoor life. Camp is a place to take care of yourself and your diabetes.
—Maureen, Clara Barton Camper, 1975
I come to camp to have fun and to learn about diabetes and how to control myself from eating too much. To take the right amount of insulin to keep my blood sugar down. To be in good control. Camp is a place to go to get away from home for awhile.
—Eileen, Clara Barton Camper, 1975
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Notes
- 1.
(Association 2012) See p. S72.
- 2.
John Papers, “The Camp,” p. 1.
- 3.
Priscilla White Papers. Correspondence and Related, 1947–1989. Joslin Diabetes Foundation camp: camper-created activity flyers and related, 1975, n.d. MC 997, folder 1.10. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. See Seq. 1 and 3.
- 4.
Ibid. See also Report for 1931, p. 2. In this report, John imagines a future with more diabetes incidence which would “ultimately be handles by the state rather than by private individuals or corporations.” John had a very clear focus on the need for diabetes-friendly environments.
- 5.
Henry J. John Papers, The Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, OH. Container 3, Collection #3621, Board Vol. 2, Report for 1930 of the “Ho Mita, Koda, Inc.” (Summer Camp for Diabetic Children), p. 1.
- 6.
Both CHMK and CBC have extensive archival records which allows for greater analysis of the intentions of camp founders, and reflections of campers.
- 7.
“A Diabetes Camp Love Story,” July 19, 2012. https://www.medtronicdiabetes.com/loop-blog/a-diabetes-camp-love-story/.
- 8.
John Papers, Container 2, “The Camp,” 1. See also, John Manuscript/Diary, p. 4.
- 9.
In its first year, 1929, the camp hosted 6 children. Camp attendees increased dramatically in the ensuing years. See 1932 report, p. 1. The name of the camp honored the Sioux and “Ho Mita Koda” translated into “Hail, my Friend.” The camp also included a totem pole.
- 10.
John Papers, “The Camp,” p. 4.
- 11.
(Erevelles 2014; Alison Kafer 2013) Erevelles offers a political/relational model of disability that locates the built environment as a focal point for disability studies. Likewise, Kafer reminds us that, “In imagining more accessible futures, I am yearning for an elsewhere—and, perhaps, an ‘elsewhen’—in which disability is understood otherwise: as political, as valuable, as integral.” (See p. 3) See also Lennard Davis, Enforcing Normalcy. Leonard critiques of the cultural construction of “Normal” (as used above in the CHMK mission statement) and its scientific claims about the human body.
- 12.
Needle Point News, 1939. See “Ever Onward” on p. 3.
- 13.
Ibid.
- 14.
Priscilla White Papers. Correspondence and Related, 1947–1989. Joslin Diabetes Foundation camp: camper-created activity flyers and related, 1975, n.d. MC 997, folder 1.10. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Seq. 38.
- 15.
See “Latest Comments” in “A Diabetes Camp Love Story,” https://www.medtronicdiabetes.com/loop-blog/a-diabetes-camp-love-story/.
- 16.
Association of Universalist Women. Records 1869–1957. https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/div00181/catalog Accessed March 17, 2021. The Clara Barton Camp also garnered financial support from the Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Women. (White and Waskow 1947).
- 17.
See Henry J. John Papers, report of 1930 of “Camp Ho Mita Koda, Inc.,” (Summer Camp for Diabetic Children, p.1.)
- 18.
Priscilla White Manuscript Collection, Schlesinger Library, Box 91-M113. Document undated but likely penned in the 1970s.
- 19.
The AAUW bought the land in 1921 to commemorate the birthplace of Universalist member and American Red Cross founder Clara Barton. AAUW members built a camp for children with diabetes as a way of dedicating the special space to humanitarian work that built national character. Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation. Camps Committee. (1904). Records, 1904–1967 (inclusive).
- 20.
Abigail A. Van Slyck in Campfire and youth culture. See also Abigail A. Van Slyck, “Kitchen Technologies and Meal Time Rituals.”
- 21.
Priscilla White Papers. Correspondence and Related, 1947–1989. Joslin Diabetes Foundation camp: camper-created activity flyers and related, 1975, n.d. MC 997, folder 1.10. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. See Seq. 18.
- 22.
Priscilla White Papers. Correspondence and Related, 1947–1989. Joslin Diabetes Foundation camp: camper-created activity flyers and related, 1975, n.d. MC 997, folder 1.10. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. See. Seq. 24
- 23.
Ibid., p. 5. The bust of Dr. Banting was added in 1932 during the 10th anniversary of the discovery of insulin. Modeled by Cleveland sculptor, Joe Motto and carved with Indiana limestone. Motto donated his time throughout the summer, teaching the campers art. Likewise, the wading pool was added in 1932. See pp. 3–4 of 1932 report.
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Gardner, K.E. (2021). “Especially Made for Them”: Summer Camps for Diabetic Children. In: Frazer, B.C., Walker, H.R. (eds) (Un)doing Diabetes: Representation, Disability, Culture. Palgrave Studies in Science and Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83110-3_19
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