A Free, Transformational Camp Experience for Kids with Serious Illnesses

A Free, Transformational Camp Experience for Kids with Serious Illnesses

 

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At Flying Horse Farms, every kid unlocks opportunities for more. While at camp, they can foster independence and build connections— knowing at camp, all they have to focus on is being a kid. 2024 applications must be completed by March 15 – visit flyinghorsefarms.org to begin yours today!

Experience & Embrace More at Camp:

A place for kids with serious illnesses to heal, grow, and thrive

Located in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, Flying Horse Farms is a medical specialty camp that primarily. serves campers with serious illnesses ages 8-15, with engagement opportunities for kids and adolescents aged 7-21. Camp provides transformational programming at no cost to families, allowing campers to heal, grow, and thrive.

Flying Horse Farms has provided more than 10,000 camper experiences and more than 150 sessions since first opening in 2010 as part of the SeriousFun Children’s Network, founded by actor, philanthropist and Ohio native Paul Newman. Campers served have diagnoses including cancer, heart conditions, rheumatologic diagnoses, blood disorders, lung conditions, gastrointestinal disorders, craniofacial diagnoses, spinal cord diagnoses and mental health conditions.

For kids with serious illnesses and their families, the journey to discover Flying Horse Farms often begins with uncertainty. It’s when a routine checkup for your kid shifts as the doctor confirms their diagnosis; it’s the call in the middle of the day when the specialist says, “your child’s test results reveal an abnormality”;  it’s spending a Saturday afternoon scouring the internet, googling symptoms you’re seeing in your kid that weren’t there just a month ago because you can’t quite shake that nagging feeling. Ultimately, it’s felt during the long moments throughout the day you keep holding your breath.  But then, Flying Horse Farms happens.

For camper families, camp becomes the place they never imagined they could go. It’s where— amongst the unknowns of a diagnosis, smiles happen again. It’s where newness is met with love and joy instead of fear and anxiety.

5 Fast & Fun Reasons to Come to Camp:

  1. The WellNest: For campers to experience all camp has to offer, their health and safety needs must be met—as a medical specialty camp, Flying Horse Farms prioritizes safety first.
  2. Challenge By Choice: Campers are given the opportunity to embrace new experiences like exploring the ropes course, taking aim at archery, and diving in with friends at the pool.
  3. Sense of Belonging: Campers build lasting bonds with peers who understand and see them beyond their diagnosis and form lifelong friendships.
  4. Self Advocacy: Campers learn to navigate their medical conditions, confidently gain skills, and find new independence that is carried beyond a camp session.
  5. More Smiles: Camp is a place where more smiles happen because kids get to be kids.

Learn More & Apply to Come to Camp:  

Leading with an equity-driven program design, Flying Horse Farms focuses on outcomes that increase a kid’s feelings of inclusion, reduce stress, strengthen family interactions, and develop an improved sense of self. While on-site, campers participate in activities like archery, boating, fishing, dancing, arts and crafts, ropes course, zipline, swimming, and more. Campers receive care as needed 24/7 from nurses, physicians and psychosocial team members in a well-equipped onsite medical facility, the WellNest—our urgent care in the woods.

 

For more information about the 2024 camp schedule, camper application, volunteer opportunities or how you can get involved, visit our website: www.flyinghorsefarms.org. Email us at [email protected] or call (419) 751-7077.

Camp at a Glance: Meet camper Vivian!

Within 30 seconds of meeting Vivian, you will be smiling. Her wide grin and genuine excitement pull you in and remind you of the main task at hand: have fun.

Around camp the word “magic” is used a lot. Camper families often share “camp magic” is the easiest way to describe what happens at Flying Horse Farms. In the words of camper Vivian’s mom, Margaret “magic at camp is this: doctors teach you how to survive, camp teaches you how to live.”

When appointments and hospital stays are constant, camp provides a mindset and alternative space where healing, respite, and joy take over. Click here to meet Vivian

 

Click here to be immediately immersed in the sounds of camp as you apply to attend in 2024!

 

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