They're Seven Feet Tall

Regular readers of the O.C. will have heard about Camp Barton and the soon-to-be-world-famous Barton Girls. Camp Barton has been called "the most wonderful place in the world," "the place where I learned everything I know about diabetes", "my home away from home," and "where I met some of my best and most amazing friends."

And that's just from me.

But today I'd like to tell you about another outstanding diabetes camp. Arguably the second most wonderful place in the world, the place that my husband credits with saving his life. The Elliott P. Joslin Camp for Boys with Diabetes.

Camp Joslin is a mere 2.5 miles from Camp Barton. It's a long walk. Not as long if you are a staff member with a serious summertime crush. Or if you have a car and a not-so-serious crush.

Their cabins aren't as snazzy (yet) but their pond is way better. Dances at Joslin were much less... smelly than dances at Barton, because they were held under their airy Basketball pavillion.

We sing a much wider variety of songs than the Joslin boys (and sound much better of course) but most summers they even offer radio broadcasting as an activity. Our camp skits are terrific, but I've never laughed so hard as when I saw their staff perform "The Little Mermaid" and "Home Alone" with a diabetes twist.

Camp Joslin is staffed by the kind of guys you can't help but love and gals that you sort of envy and sometimes hate for their proximity to your aforementioned summertime crush. Then again, when I was at camp, most of those young women were stuck living in "The Bunny Hutch" (yes, the name for the nurses cabin) and I can't really envy them that.

Barton and Joslin are, I believe, the only single sex diabetes camps in the country. They both offer some co-ed programming, but their 9 week summer programs are single sex.

Both camps were started long ago, when boys and girls didn't camp together. Both grew into strong programs under the medical supervision of the Joslin Diabetes Center and the fundraising/program efforts of the Unitarian Universalist Women's Association (who originally offered up the land around Clara Barton's birthplace when Dr. Joslin put out a call for a place outside the hospital to which he could take his young patients, just learning to live with insulin. Now, they are two separate entities and I like to joke that my marriage (and a few others like it) are the only type of Barton/Joslin merger we need.

It's a nice setup actually. The two camps meet for dances and other activities. But the girls at Barton get to just be girls - without too much worry about how they look for the boys. I imagine the boys like it too, for much the same reason.

Maybe it's because I married a Joslin boy (who I met - and danced with - when I was Camp Director and he was Program Director: Admin hangs out with Admin, what can I say) but I love Camp Joslin. Visitng their campus gives me the same warm fuzzy feeling that I get from Barton. You can't stand there and not know that it is a truly special place. All rivalry aside, it's terrific.

Now if only we can get more of those Joslin boys bloggin'. On second thought, we were always much chattier than them anyway.

PS: The song (you knew there'd be a song, right?) goes...
We're from Camp Barton and
Our tribe's the best tribe
we fight the Camp Joslin
they're seven feet tall!

They try to beat us but
they can't defeat us cause
we're from Camp Barton and we're off the wall!