A Place to Be Yourself

Camp Joyful Hearts is a residential summer camp for kids and teens with heart disease. It offers many exciting camp activities such as swimming, high ropes, campfires and stargazing. All activities are adapted to each child’s abilities. A pediatric cardiologist and cardiac nurses are onsite 24 hours a day.

Melissa Magness, APRN, Nurse Practitioner: "There’s something about driving on this property, there's something special, different that happens here. It's magical is the best way I can say."

Lydia Butler, camper living with a heart condition: "What I like about Camp Joyful Hearts is how everyone comes here, and they feel like a family. Like, they forget they have a heart condition. They forget about all those worries, the doctors, the hospital. It's just a place to be yourself."

Allison Divanovic, MD, pediatric cardiologist: "They all have very different heart problems. Some are very minor. Some are very complex. And I think the great part about this camp is that even for those with the most complex heart problems, they couldn't go to other camps, but they can come to heart camp."

Betsy Adler, APRN-CNP, Nurse Practitioner: "All of the activities at Camp Joyful Hearts are medically supervised. We have cardiologists, nurse practitioners, and various nurses and other medical staff here all week. Any of the activities that they might not be able to do at a traditional summer camp, they can do here because we have the medical staff available."

Melissa Magness: "We've got climbing walls. We’ve got a pool, swimming, dancing, you know, everything and anything you can think of that what happened in normal camp, we can make happen with what you have going on."

Elijah Woods, camper living with a heart condition: "You get to meet like kids who have like, the same problems as you. So if like feel like alone at home, like, feel like that you're not normal. Just come over here and then like, you can like feel the same as everybody else."

Lydia Butler: "At the pool as a kid I've had, I'd have people come up to me and be like, you know, what's that on your chest? And I used to be very like, oh, I don't really want to talk about it. And now I'm like, I have a heart condition. I've had three open heart surgeries, and I would love to tell you as much as I can about it."

Ryan Moore, camper living with a heart condition: "Yes, it's nice to be around kids with a heart defect. But when I'm here, I kind of don't think about my heart defect because it’s a get-away. So all of my worries are left at the door."

Trinity Hill, camper living with a heart condition: "Sometimes I just forget, like, this year, I completely forgot like, everyone else had a heart condition. Because it's so normal to me. It's really comforting to know that someone can relate to you."

Colleen Pater, MD, Acute Care Cardiologist: "My favorite part of camp, I think, is really hanging out in the dining hall because it's a great experience where everyone has gathered together. There's always cheers and competitions and people just having a good time."

Betsy Adler: "The shaving cream war at camp joyful Hearts is so much fun. It's been a tradition for all 20 some odd years of camp, and the kids look forward to it every year and the staff does as well."

Ryan Moore: "Everybody puts on all the clothes, you know, you go out to the big field. They just have a lot of shaving cream. It’s very fun."

Allison Divanovic, MD: "I think my favorite part is just seeing the kids with so many smiles on their face and having so much fun. The hope is that they understand that, you know, yes, this is going to be part of their life forever. But it doesn't have to hold them back."

Melissa Magness: "To give them something to experience right now and take that with them every day is invaluable."

Lydia Butler: "It's something that I will always hold in my heart. I just keep coming back to feel that sense of home, and family, and friendship. I have made the most amazing friendships here."

Ryan Moore: "What keeps me coming back to Camp Joyful Hearts is just the overall atmosphere and the passion that every counselor, every administrator puts into the camp and puts into the kids. And they really try to make this a once in a lifetime opportunity. Some of the best memories have come from this place."

(Published May 2021)