Camp Kudzu

Sean, Leslie and I as we were about to leave camp on Friday. Sean was part of the activities team with Leslie and I.

Some of my nursing school friends....Kate, Sara, Me, Shannon, Erin, Leslie & Beth

Me and the counselors for my buddy cabin, Chris, Lee, Me & Andrew

Erin, Leslie & Me at the Thursday night (last night) country/western themed dance

Me & my favorite camper for the week Austin. He had the cutest accent that sounded like he was from England, but he was actually born in Texas. SO PRECIOUS!!

Leslie & Austin hitting up the dance floor

Some girls in our cabin that were on the dietary staff team

Leslie doing the zip line

Leslie about to jump off

It was HIGH and wobbly

Sweet Austin

Will doing the sack race

Austin running with the costume on

Some of my favorite quotes for the week from him were: "Why are you hugging a chubby person?" and "Everyone knows that blue beats red, I mean water always beats fire" (referring to the color wars red vs blue....we were obviously on the blue team :-)

Me & Austin

Hayes and Alex

Me doing the zip line

Those harnesses are not very comfortable

A little nervous

Alex, Hayes and Will with their golden syringe and gold pump awards, which they get for changing their pump site or giving themselves their first injection

Syir with his award.

Austin with his award

4 of my campers

Tuesday we had some special guest, Jordyn Shellhart an up and coming country music singer and this race care driver. He had zero personality.

The boys getting autographs

This is Jordyn, her older bother died 3 years ago from undiagnosed type 1 diabetes. She was really sweet and a good singer. You should download some of her music!

Us with Jordyn

Getting autographs

They were so excited!

Jordyn Shellhart

Hayes, Alex, Syir and Sam

Syir playing at the carnival on Monday night

Alex playing a big game of operation

Jousting

Amanda and Jes, 2 nursing school friends

The counselors

Alex was so excited to get his picture, can't you tell

Les and I on the blow up horses

This was harder than it looked

Me & Les

The kids got to ride horses

They really enjoyed it!

Chris and Sam

Hayes

Cracking up with the helmets on

Leslie and I taking a break from unloading luggage

Me and Beth

Amazing how much luggage these kids bring to camp

Dakota with his awards

Sam with his awards

All the KSU Nursing students

Memorial Day week I was at Camp Kudzu for my summer community health clinical. You could choose to do a traditional clinical like the health department for 2 days a week for 6 weeks during the semester or you could do camp. I choose camp mainly to get it over with in a week, but ended up being an awesome experience. One of my best clinical experiences in nursing school. We got there Saturday, and I was on Activities staff in charge of sports and games for the week. We also were in charge of checking everyone in and bringing their luggage to the cabins, along with Logistics staff. It was a lot of work. I was not in a cabin with kids since I was activities staff, however I was paired with a cabin as their shoes off buddy. This basically means I ate all meals with them, did activities with them if I had free time, and gave the counselors a break at designated times. I had 8 year old boys, and they were great! This was their first year at camp so it was neat to watch them come out of their shell and learn new things about managing their diabetes. I was also paired with a preceptor (a RN) that was a clinician over 2 cabins, basically she met with these cabins before/after each meal and before bedtime to administer insulin. I loved her! She also had type 1 diabetes. The cabins were we in charge of were 15-16 year old boys, and so I got to see both ends of the spectrum. We also did midnight rounds with our preceptor twice during the week. Every night all the kids got blood glucose tested to make sure they were above 120 before the clinician went to bed. So we would go by 4 cabins and treat the highs/lows and make sure they came up before going to bed. Both nights I did it, we got in bed around 2:30, which made 7 am really early the next day. Thank God for coffee! Overall, it was a very rewarding experience. I encourage you to volunteer your time to some cause! You'll get more out of it than you put it!!!