The summer family camp for kids with TM, ADEM and NMO will be held from August 19 to August 24, 2007 at Victory Junction Gang Camp.  The camp is about 20 minutes south of Greensboro, North Carolina which is on Eastern Standard Time.  The camp is for kids with TM, ADEM and NMO who are 7 - 15 years old and their siblings and parents.  The maximum capacity of the camp for our week will be 32 families.  We recently received an update from Victory Junction and 30 applications have already been sent in by TMA families.  If you have an interest in coming to camp in 2007, you will need to send in an application as quickly as possible. 

There are two applications that you will need to fill out and submit to the camp:

http://www.victoryjunction.org/aa_apply/apply05_application.html

There is a medical section of the application that will need to be filled out by your doctor.  Please send your portion of the application as soon as you have it completed.  Do not wait for the physician section; that portion can be sent in later.  There could be cancellations, but at the present time, there may be only two openings available for the 2007 camp.

You are applying to VJGC and the camp must accept you and your family.  This is an important point to keep in mind.  VJGC is offering a family camp to the TMA community.  This is their camp; we are the guests.  We are partners with VJGC in making this incredible dream into a reality, but the recreation program, the application process, the logistics (medical and travel and all others), and all of the rules are all about VJGC.  You must fill out the applications, the camp will review all of your information, including all of the medical information that is sent by your physician, and then they will notify you as to whether you have been accepted. 

Please do not make any travel arrangements until you have been accepted to camp by VJGC!  Do not pay for plane tickets until you have been accepted.   

Piedmont Triad International (GSO, Greensboro) is the closet airport to VJGC and the usual preferred pick-up location.  If you are flying to camp from within the US, please make your reservations to fly into Piedmont Triad and please discuss pick-up arrangements with VJGC.  If you are flying to VJGC from overseas, Piedmont Triad in Greensboro is not truly an International airport.  VJGC would not expect families to book connector flights to GSO unless it made sense to do so.  Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) is the preference as the arrival location for our International TM campers and families with a direct connection to North Carolina from overseas.  If a family is flying from say, Paris to New York, and can then fly into GSO as opposed to RDU, that’s great.  VJGC will arrange for pick ups from the airports, so before you finalize your travel plans, please contact the camp directly if you are not going to be flying into Greensboro (Piedmont Triad Airport) to ensure that the camp will be able to transport you and your family from the airport to camp.

TM Family Camp will conclude mid-day (about noon) on Friday, August 24th.  Everyone should be prepared to vacate camp by mid- to late-afternoon, either to an airport for a departure flight, or to alternate lodging.

Your point of contact at Victory Junction Gang Camp regarding the application process is Kristin Wolbert.  Kristin can be reached at: (336)495-2002; her email address is kwolbert@victoryjunction.org.  If you have any medical issues that you would like to discuss, please get in touch with either Dr. Peter Sim or Emily Parenteau.  Dr. Sim’s email is: psim@victoryjunction.org and Emily’s is: emily@victoryjunction.org.  The person who is responsible for coordinating our entire family camp at VJGC is Genie Gunn.  Genie’s email is: ggunn@victoryjunction.org.

VJGC is a camp, but this is not about sleeping outside in tents on rocks and waking up at 5:00 in the morning to start making dinner.  There are 32 cabins with very comfortable beds.  There are fully accessible showers with benches.  Meals are served in a large cafeteria and the food is totally awesome and nutritious.  There is a full time medical staff and there is an extensive voluntary medical staff; the camp will bring in medical personnel to accommodate all children’s needs.  The medical director of the camp is a physician and there is a nurse practitioner who heads the medical staff program.  The camp will collect enough information about your child to ensure that they have a safe experience at camp.  This camp is totally about being loved, cared for and safe.  The medical facility at the camp is exceptional. 

This camp is about fun!  The kids with TM, ADEM and NMO are going to have an awesome time, their siblings will have an incredible time and the parents will also.  VJGC will cover the cost of everything at camp.  You only have to pay for your travel. 

Drs. Doug Kerr, Adam Kaplin, Greg Barnes, Frank Pidcock, Ben Greenberg and Chitra Krishnan from our Medical Advisory Board will be at camp for the week with their families.  They will make formal presentations on the most up to date research and there will be many informal conversations during which you will be able to ask them questions.  There will also be opportunities for the parents to talk to and share with each other.  But first and foremost, the camp is going to be family fun, for all of our TMA members and for the medical advisory board and their families.    

It is important that everyone have realistic expectations of what the physicians can provide you during the week at camp.  The doctors will not examine your child at camp.  The doctors will be there to talk and they can certainly offer some general advice.  They won’t be doing any testing or evaluations; what you get from the doctors cannot be the kind of information that derives from a thorough medical examination.  

If your child with TM, NMO or ADEM is 19 years old or older, they might be interested in applying to VJGC to come as a volunteer for our family week.  The many volunteer opportunities are identified on the Victory Junction Gang Camp web site.  VJGC will make all of the decisions about who is accepted as a volunteer.  The volunteer application needs to be filled out and submitted to Claire Rutan as quickly as possible.  There are many people who apply for these positions, and the camp cannot accept everyone. 

The Volunteer application can be found from the following link:

http://www.victoryjunction.org/aa_help/help05_volunteers.html

If you are interested in coming to VJGC TMA family week, but are not able to do so in 2007, please get in touch with me (ssiegel@myelitis.org) and I will be sure to add you to our list for recruiting purposes.  Victory Junction Gang Camp has committed to holding a TMA family camp every other year.  Once you are added to our recruiting list, you will be contacted by the TMA as soon as the application process is initiated for the next camp.