Category: Updates from Camp

Mara LeRoy is always looking for her next activity. She recently learned about indoor skydiving, which naturally she had to try, and just finished up her eighth year of adapted downhill skiing. She’s eager now for the snow to back off and plans to attend the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota’s (EFMN) Family Camp for the third consecutive year this July. Mara has had epilepsy her whole life, but because she uses a wheelchair to get around she hasn’t been able to attend Camp OZ. She has found Family Camp to be a fun day camp that offers some great activities.

Paul considers himself lucky, despite having been diagnosed with epilepsy at five years old. In addition to using EFMN’s programs and services, he came looking for ways to help those who weren’t as fortunate as him.

Our last full day of Camp Oz has arrived. It was a bit gloomy and chilly this morning, but I’ll take that weather over Sunday’s humidity any day – and it certainly didn’t stop the campers from getting to their first activities, even the swimmers. The water level has risen about 2-3 feet from the damn break a few days ago, so we moved over to Troy Beach right next door and the cabin groups still got to swim. Our last cabin groups of the day got to participate in the horses, so we sent a group of volunteers to assist with that activity.

Alas, this day finally brought some sunshine for the campers! Waffles were for breakfast today – always a hit with this group. We had a birthday in the house, so we all celebrated that as well.

Tuesday started off with some light rain again, but that did not deter the campers from getting off to a great start to the day! After breakfast, cabins were off to their first activity of the day. Today was the first day the camp store was open for campers, so it was neat to see what caught their eye. Camp staff set up several indoor options for cabins that didn’t want to be in the rain, so various groups voted on this morning activities.

We woke up to our second day of camp with much cooler temperatures. After a breakfast of pancakes, sausage, fruit, and cereal (always a crowd pleaser), a quick rain shower hit camp. But after some cabin time to clean and organize (very needed, even after only one day) the campers were ready to hit the first official activities of the day.

Our first day at Camp Oz was hot, hot hot!  We welcomed 130 campers out to Camp St. Croix for the week in what felt like 120 degree weather.  But everyone sure was troopers!  The campers got settled into their cabins and headed to unit activities where they got to