Children with kidney problems enjoy YMCA's Camp Copneconic

Children with kidney problems enjoy YMCA's Camp Copneconic
Thursday, July 21, 2011, 4:36 PM
By Karen Confer | The Flint Journal

MUNDY TOWNSHIP, Michigan — Wobbling into a kayak, 12-year-old Nicholas Shirah looked just like every other child working toward a Scout badge at Camp Copneconic this week.
After they were taught how to secure the orange life jackets around their necks, Nicholas’ partner pushed him free of the sand. With a few tentative strokes, he cut through the water and into the open lake.
But the Grand Blanc boy has health challenges other campers don’t have to deal with.
Born with Stage 4 kidney failure, Nicholas is waiting for a kidney transplant.
He is one of about 25 kids attending the YMCA’s Camp Copneconic through the National Kidney Foundation. Volunteer doctors and nurses stay for the week to handle the children’s health needs and transport those needing dialysis procedures.
“It’s pretty cool to be with kids with my condition,” said Nicholas.
Even with their health concerns, the children are mixed in with the 300 or so campers without kidney conditions, allowing them to enjoy the camp as fully as possible.
They participate in boating, zip line, fishing, arts and crafts and other camp activities.
This is the 25th year for the Kids’ Camp with the National Kidney Foundation.
More than 700 children ages 8 to 16 have attended since the weeklong camp began, said Bob Meyer, program coordinator.
“Unless they move away or there’s a conflict with school or a family vacation ... they come back year after year,” Meyer said.
Many of the kids come from southern Michigan, but Meyer said the camp hopes to tap into the Grand Rapids area to increase attendance.
“We sure would like to get more kids involved,” he said. “Across the board, there’s more people in this country being diagnosed (with kidney problems), because there’s such an increase in high blood pressure and diabetes.”
For one volunteer, the camp brings back memories.
Katie Wertz, 27, of Bellevue, Ohio, attended a kidney camp at a YMCA camp in Ohio throughout her childhood.
Fighting the kidney disease focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, or FSGS, she undergoes dialysis three times a week and decided to come north to photograph the campers’ experiences.
“I see a lot of them in me,” she said. “I know what it’s like to be that age and not fit in.”
But Nicholas doesn’t feel too out of place, at least not this week. He loved the kayaking experience and said he was looking forward to the rest of the week.
“It’s really fun,” he said. “I like my counselor.”

PHOTO: Jared Scheidel, 13, of Comstock Park, rests at the bottom of the high ropes course Monday as the rest of his cabin waits in line. Scheidel is one of 25 kids with kidney disease that are attending Camp Copenconic in Fenton this week. Born premature and with obstructive uropathy, a condition in which the flow of urine is blocked causing it to back up and injure the kidneys, Scheidel received a kidney transplant in 2004 which lasted four years before failing. He now under goes peritoneal dialysis everyday, and while at camp he must receive treatment four times a day.

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2011/07/children_with_kidney_problems.html