Support for this program is provided by the Weldon F Osborne Foundation.

The Schillhahn-Huskey Foundation.

And viewers like you.

Thank you.

On today's show, we'll learn about two impactful nonprofits.

One is a camp for diabetic children and the other serves children and families dealing with neuroblastoma cancer.

We're stronger together.

Chattanooga Stay tuned to learn more.

Welcome to Chattanooga Stronger Together.

I'm Barbara Marter Tennessee Camp for Diabetic Children offers children ages eight through 15, a two week summer camp experience focused on fun and learning.

Joining us today is executive director Sally Crimmins.

Welcome, Sally, and so glad that you're here today.

Thank you for having me.

And I really want to learn more about this camp for diabetic children.

So share with me your mission.

Well, we try to help children learn and these are all children with type one diabetes.

Back in the old days, they call it juvenile diabetes or insulin dependent diabetes.

To let these children learn how to be self-sufficient, independent, but yet still be able to participate in all the things that most children do every day.

Mhm.

We do activities all day long learning as well as just plain old camp things.

So who started the camp?

I mean, how was it founded?

The camp started back in the early 1950s.

Dr. Albert Easley here in Chattanooga and several parents of diabetic children got together and said, you know, our children can't go to camps because there's no medical personnel.

And so let's try to put something together.

And so after several years developing that, the Tennessee camp for diabetic children, which is a 501C3, it was begun.

First it was at a Girl Scout camp and now it is at the Double G Ranch in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, on Lake Chickamauga.

And it's been there for 73 years.

Oh wow.

And we have a big group of, of people that support us.

A good group of alumni and we all talk constantly.

So it's just a summer camp.

Just a summer camp.

We only have it for two weeks.

so there's a lake up there.

Yes, we're on Lake Chickamauga.

Okay.

So is there a swimming pool?

There's a canoeing.

We have paddleboarding.

We have arts and crafts.

We have archery, all athletics that you can think of.

We teach children to swim.

We teach them.

We also have mountain biking there.

So the camp itself has got 300 acres.

The kids can follow a trail around.

They aren't just left to go run by themselves.

I know.

So you on your own?

Yeah.

No, There is a buddy system.

The children are always with either one or two of their other class cabin mates.

So that is so cool.

So for diabetic camp, you've got to be medically equip We have medical people on 24 seven, We have our medical director is there during the entire camp session, as is a certified diabetes educator.

And then we have several med students that come down anywhere from 8 to 11 med students that come down and participate during the camp session.

So are these these med students from the local colleges?

They are for college up in East Tennessee.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

How difficult is it?

Well, first of all, how many students can you how many campers can you have in a two week period?

When we're full, we have 90, 45 girls and 45 boys.

Okay.

And then the counselors.

There's two counselors in every cabin.

At least one is a diabetic.

Usually both of them are.

Oh, wow.

So in the last five years, we've had one nondiabetic counselor on the staff.

Everybody else has had type one diabetes.

Because they know then what's going.

On.

They know how to handle anything.

They know how to pay attention.

And, you know, if a kid has a you know, what does this mean when I feel like this or something, then they can say, Oh, well, this is what it means.

So what are these kids coming with?

What kind of extra equipment are they coming with when they come to camp.

When they come?

Most of the children are now on insulin pumps.

They don't take insulin injections, so they have to bring their equipment, all their supplies for that.

They do not have to bring insulin that is provided by the camp.

Wow.

And if the glucose monitoring systems, if they're on the Dexcom, they need to bring any of their Dexcom supplies as well as the other one is a Libre, Freestyle.

And they need to bring those types of.

But we supply all the medical insulin and you know, we have glucose tablets if they need low blood sugars, we have, you know, we have all of that type of stuff.

They just have to bring their equipment, supplies.

And so you have a dietician.

We have a dietician who is also a former camper.

Yes.

And so they know exactly the carbs, the proteins and the calories and all of that.

One of the things that we try to do is a education of the kids.

So they all have a class, at least every other day.

And it's not anything where you're sitting at a desk and you're being shaking your fingers shook at my teacher.

Yeah.

But that you talk about nutrition, how to calculate how much insulin you should be taking, how many carbs you've got versus how many insulin units you need right now, as well as saying, okay, what happens when you have an emergency?

What kind of things to do, especially with some of the disasters such as the tornadoes and all that type of stuff.

What type of things do you need to have in a to go bag so that you have everything you need to control your diabetes?

And I would not have even thought about the emergency to go bag on a situation that that's amazing.

And you know, a lot of the things and we're all like with now because everything's technology but if you lose power and you can't recharge anything, you have to know how to do all these things yourself.

And so that's what we try to teach the kids is, you know, how can you be independent if the technology is not working at the time?

And so they, they're actually really learning from you how to manage not their diabetes, but to manage their lifestyle.

Yes.

You know, yes, I'm a diabetic.

Yes, I have this, but I can still enjoy life.

I can still swim, bike, hike, you know, play ball or whatever like that.

There's just something else I just have to manage over here on this side.

Yeah.

Wow.

And that's one of the fun things about TDC, as we call it, because everybody there has got the same thing.

So you don't have to explain to anybody, I have to go eat.

I don't feel good.

Everybody can see it or recognizes it and you or you can.

And then they say, Oh, okay, well, here I'll go with you up to the lodge and we'll get you something to eat or we'll go to the medical infirmary and figure out, you know, why you're not feeling good.

So and you know, unfortunately or fortunately, whatever you to say, the technology has made it so that parents can watch what's going on with the kids.

And because they're not there and they don't see the activities, they get a little anxious when they see their child blood sugars dropping and they think it's that or, you know, the opposite, where it's going to something too high.

And, you know, they've got to we keep telling them y'all are on vacation for two weeks, just let them go.

But that's hard for them to disconnect.

Oh, yes, it is.

It is.

But after the first year and then their kid keeps coming back to camp, then they're like, I can't wait.

Do you go to camp?

I got two weeks vacation.

You know, that's helping mom and dad.

We've had a few parents who've gone to Hawaii.

Well, you.

Know, kids are.

So, you know.

Yeah, they get relaxed about it a little But now you have a personal connection.

They say very, very, very personal.

My grandparents were Ruth and Gordon Street who started the Double G Ranch.

My mother, my grand mother was contacted by Dr. Easley to help start the camp.

And so they bought this property and put it under what's called the Gordon Street Family Foundation.

And the camp itself is used for Orange Grove as well as for TCDC.

And then we have a couple of other day camps that use the facility during the summer.

And then when I was nine and diagnosed, I started going when I was ten and have not left the camp since.

You're still a part, you're probably a.

Part of it.

Camper then Counselor and then on the board of directors.

So yes, I'm very, very attached to the place.

I can only imagine so because, I mean, you're just shining through because you love what it represents and you know the difference that it can make in the lives of these young people.

Oh, definitely.

Because now they're... the diabetes does not control them.

Now they learn to control the diabetes.

Yes, very much so.

Which I absolutely love.

And I love that.

So.

So you're are you teaching nutritional classes there?

I know we talked about the carbs and stuff like that.

And so you're working through all of those different classes.

Are you do you ever work with the kids on letting them create meals or anything?

Like we've talked.

On and off about it?

It's a little the I guess it's a cafeteria, but the cooking area itself is not large enough to kids.

If you've got 9 to 10 kids in there that are trying to get around a small.

Yeah.

Makes it kind of hard.

It makes it a little difficult.

Yeah.

Because then you have to have the real meal cooked.

And that's one of the things a lot of 15 year olds do it themselves when they are they they're learning to cook some stuff.

They love that.

That is so cool.

So cool.

So do you have a waiting list?

We have in the past we've laughed that we've done such a good job that kids don't have to worry about coming anymore with No, that's not true.

You really still need to come.

But we also you know, a lot of parents are nervous because of the cost at any time.

But we do offer camper ships or scholarship financial assistance.

Yeah.

And a lot of our alums will sponsor a child and send ‘em for camp.

So theyre paying it back.

Thank you so much.

Well, I love talking about our place.

I know I could tell and this has been so educational for me.

So thank you so much for coming in and talking about it.

Thank you.

So up next, we'll talk with Wendy Ransom, founder of Emily's Power for Cure.

Stay with us.

We want to know how you serve your community.

Send us photos or videos of you or your family volunteering, and we may feature it on a future episode.

Email stronger at WTCITV dot org or use the hashtag stronger WTCI on social Welcome back.

With us today is Wendy Ransom, founder of Emily's Power for a Cure.

The organization strives to raise awareness and hope for a neuroblastoma cure and to support families that are affected by the disease.

It's a pleasure to have you here with us today, Wendy.

Thank you for having me.

Tell me Emily's story.

My sweet little Emily was born in 2003.

I had to briefly...

Think about that.

Twenty years ago.

Yeah.

Yes.

And she was the youngest my youngest child at the time.

She had two older brothers.

We were busy.

We were playing baseball, We were swimming.

We were doing all the things that young families do.

And just after her second birthday, she started feeling a little puny.

Not terrible, I would say.

I thought she had a cold, but we were supposed to go to Disney World.

So I ran her to the pediatrician real quick.

And he sent us very quickly to Erlanger to have a CT scan because he had felt a mass in her abdomen.

And very soon thereafter, she was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma, which is a word we had never heard before, and a word we wish we never knew.

Right.

But we very quickly learned as much as we could.

We found definitely the very best treatment here in Chattanooga.

And we did everything that we were supposed to do.

And we tried to keep her life and the lives of her brothers as normal as possible.

But just four months later, she died and she went to heaven.

And after just a short amount of time of us dealing with cancer, we had learned a lot in a very short amount of time, and we didn't want to let that go to waste.

So we decided to start Emily's Power for a Cure.

Mm hmm.

To help find a cure for neuroblastoma, which has had the same survival rate since 1970.

And we.

It's.

It's just not enough.

It just wasn't enough for Emily, and it's just not enough for anyone else's child.

So we turned all of our efforts into finding a cure and also help helping Emily's friends, who we had met through the hospital and their families, and subsequently all of those neuroblastoma families around the area that we have come to know.

Right.

One of the things that I love your website, it's beautifully done, very tastefully done to thank.

But I was reading Emily's story.

But then also to the statistics that you put in there, that if it's going to be discovered, it's between ages one and two.

But up to age five, 95% have been determined to have this type of cancer annually in the United States.

Between 650 and 700 children each year are diagnosed with this.

Yeah, I'd never heard of this before.

It's considered a rare disease, and we don't like that word because it's only rare until it happens to your child.

But you're right, It and then the difficulty with neuroblastoma is it's silent.

There can be all kinds of symptoms.

But like with Emily, she was very healthy.

She appeared to be very healthy and she got a little cough.

Well, turns out it was a tumor pushing against her lungs.

But I had not observed anything differently in her.

But as soon as I noticed something, you know, we did take her to the doctor.

And so and that's what I tell... you know, we have a very young mom whose daughter is being treated in Nashville currently, and her gut told her something was wrong.

She didn't know exactly what, but she went and got answers.

And unfortunately, that was the answer.

So what is neuroblastoma?

I mean, what what is it?

Basically in layman's terms.

So it is a it's a disease of the central nervous system.

A lot of people think when you say neuro that it has some sort of brain.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

But it is not it that the central nervous system and what makes it so difficult to treat is that it can be a hard tumor disease much like and much like a brain tumor, but it can also be in your bone marrow, it can be in your bones, and it can be a blood disease.

So it has all of these different facets that make it.

We we know how to treat a tumor.

We also know how to treat a blood is, you know, we had it know how to treat things.

And these things individually.

But to treat them all together is very challenging.

And these are very small children.

So it's very hard to do research, You know, for small children, it's it's just a very difficult disease to treat.

Are there outward, other than, you know, she was not feeling good, you know, kind of a little tummy ache.

You thought maybe she had a cold.

Are there outward appearances or things like bruises or blemishes or something that might alert a mother or father of a small child?

I need to see a pediatrician.

Sure.

And I would never tell anyone to panic if they saw any of these symptoms, because they can can be anything.

But sometimes a child will develop a black eye.

Sometimes a child will develop a bump on their leg.

You might feel something in their abdomen.

Um.

My advice to parents is, if you think something is not right, go check it out.

So how do you treat what are the treatments for this this cancer, this disease?

So an interesting part of childhood cancer as a whole is these kids receive a much higher dose of chemotherapy than what we as adults would receive because they don't know any better.

When you and I receive a chemotherapy treatment and we feel sick and we feel pain and we are miserable, that's all that we can tolerate.

Children don't necessarily know that.

They know that they don't feel great, but their mom is there, their dad is bigger and they're they're still they're still having fun and they're still to do things.

So we are able to treat them with a little bit higher dose than we are able to treat adults.

So they receive chemotherapy.

If they have a hard tumor, they will then have a surgery to remove the hard tumor, if that's possible, and then they will receive a bone marrow transplant or a stem cell transplant, which is similar to a bone marrow transplant, but it's their own body stem cells that they will receive back.

Oh, it's it's interesting.

And it's a little bit safer than a bone marrow transplant in that they don't need an outside donor.

Never heard of that before.

That's amazing.

It is.

And then now they have new treatments called antibody therapies and there's different types.

And every I have to say that every hospital kind of does things a little bit differently.

But here at Erlanger, they follow the children's oncology grade protocols, which are followed at most hospitals across the country.

And that changes.

And I have to say currently, I believe that kids are receiving two stem cell transplants.

It changes as as we learn more.

Yeah.

So as youre progressing and raising funds and everything for research?

How much research is actually being done with this type?

So there is a lot of research being done.

In fact, my oldest son, who is in medical school, he did a internship at St Jude's last year and they did research on a new drug that's coming from Japan and that is showing great promise in treating neuroblastoma.

So there's research going on all over the world.

It's just challenging.

It's challenging to get funding.

It's challenging then to get it into patients.

Nobody wants to give a child a treatment that doesn't work, you know, and yet our kids need those treatments.

So it is happening all over.

Funding is hard to come by, so organizations like ours are very important to help give that extra boost to fund that research.

So.

So there's two fold.

How are you supporting families in this?

And then also, we want you to talk about the CT Ranch.

Sure.

Okay.

Sure.

Well, prior to COVID, any time a child was diagnosed in the Chattanooga or surrounding areas, the social worker or the child life specialists or even the oncologist would give me a call and let me know that we had a new patient and I would immediately pack up a goodie bag of snacks and t shirts and sweatshirts.

Anything that I could find to take down there.

And then I would just introduce myself to the family and kind of help them through especially that initial phase of diagnosis, which I do call the shock and awe phase, where they are getting so much information thrown at them that they they can't possibly process at all.

And so I can help process some of that as just another mom.

Right.

And then as time goes on, whenever the patient is inpatient for treatment, our foundation will provide meals.

We have a group of volunteers who will provide home cooked meals to kids while they're in the hospital, which when Emily was sick, meant so much because, yeah, everybody gets a little tired of hospital food no matter how good it is.

And a lot of kids have to receive treatment eventually someplace else, whether it be Vanderbilt or Memorial Sloan-Kettering or Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

So we help provide and help cover transportation costs and hotel stays.

post-COVID.

Things changed a little bit.

And so I wasn't able to be in the hospital with patients quite as much.

And even still, it's a it's still kind of a challenging situation, not so much here, but at Vanderbilt.

So we we send everybody gas cards, gas and gift cards that they can use.

We send them out monthly.

They can either use it for gas to get to and from appointments because not everybody lives in Chattanooga, you know, So some people have to drive an hour or more to get just to get treatment.

So we help with that or they can use it for groceries.

Cancer is expensive, as I'm sure you can imagine.

So we just try to help fill in any loopholes that we can.

And then you created in 2011 the CT Ranch.

And we did.

We just saw pictures of that on your Facebook that is adorable.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think Emily would be very proud of that.

Yeah.

And so basically, you just created this ranch right?

A room that just looks like a ranch.

Ranch.

Yeah.

Yes.

It's, you know, cancer kids have to have lots of different scans, CT scans, MRI's, all kinds of things.

It's not fun for anybody, for the patient or the parent.

And so in in what I would call a true Emily fashion, we wanted to make it better.

And so we did.

We it's you know, Emily's Emily's image is there in that room, which I think is, you know, and the other great thing is that it's a CT scanner.

So lots of kids have CT scans, kids with broken bones, kids with possible concussions, things like that.

So it's been able to benefit a a much larger population of children than than what we had imagined.

And it gives parents a comfortable place to wait while their child's having a scan, your children a place to wait and watch TV before while they're getting ready for this scan.

It's just a relaxing.

The furniture is wooden.

It's just is it's just a cowboy cowgirl ranch.

I know.

Which is really.

Cute.

In the middle of the hospital.

In the middle of the hospital.

I know it is cute.

So I really want to direct our viewers to your website.

There's a lot of information out there.

And I love all the different stories, especially Emily's story, too.

In this last 30, 45 seconds, are there volunteer opportunities always?

We always have volunteer opportunities.

Again, I said we have volunteers who make home cooked meals.

We're always looking for more volunteers to do that.

We have a big fundraiser coming up in the fall called the Pink Bandana Ball, and we are looking for volunteers to help us with that event.

Whether they want to work at the event, they want to help us find auction items or they want to be a sponsor.

We are we have many ways that you can help and we're always looking for people if they just want to donate a gift card.

Oh, that is great as well.

You know, a little goes a long way when you are a local organization.

We can do a lot with a little.

Well, thank you so much for sharing Emily's story with us and all that you're doing to help these young moms and dads really be aware of.

There is another disease out there.

It does affect the small children, but there is hope.

Exactly.

I hope is the best gift we can give.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

And thank you for joining us.

We hope you've learned more about the incredible work being done by nonprofits in our area.

If you'd like to tell us what you think, email us at stronger@wtciTV.org or use the hashtag StrongerWTCI on social media.

I'm Barbara Marter and from all of us here at WTCI, we'll see you next time Watch even more of the shows you love on the free PBS app.

Support for this program is provided by the Weldon F Osborne Foundation.

The Schillhahn-Huskey Foundation.

And viewers like you.

Thank you.