When Violet’s mom arrived to pick her up from Camp Joyful Hearts, she found her 10-year-old daughter surrounded by a group of girls. They were hugging, lingering, and could barely bring themselves to say goodbye. Just days earlier, most of them had been strangers. Now, they were “camp besties,” already making Violet promise she would come back next summer. For Violet’s mom, Erica, it was a moment she wasn’t sure she would ever see.
A Prescription for Camp
The year before, Violet's cardiologist at Cincinnati Children's Heart Institute, Dr. Pater, had given the family an unusual prescription: Camp Joyful Hearts at Camp Joy. Erica was hesitant. Violet had undergone heart surgery as a newborn, but today she has no restrictions and takes no medication. Her family feels incredibly fortunate that her heart condition has had little impact on her everyday childhood. So when camp was first suggested, Erica worried about what it might mean for Violet. "I didn't want her to go to camp with 'sick' kids and identify as such," she later wrote to Dr. Pater.
But something was beginning to change. As Violet grew older, she was becoming more aware of what had happened to her as a baby. Other people noticed her surgical scars and asked questions. A part of her story that had once belonged mostly to her parents was becoming something Violet was beginning to understand for herself. Dr. Pater believed camp could help. At Joyful Hearts, Violet wouldn't have to explain quite so much. She could meet other children who carried stories, scars, and experiences of their own. Erica trusted the recommendation, and then she watched her daughter fall in love with camp.
Becoming "Agent Blueberry"
At Camp Joy, Violet became "Agent Blueberry." She jumped into activities, made friends, and became part of the little community that forms when children spend their days trying new things and their evenings laughing together. Erica followed along from home through photos and posts, looking for glimpses of her daughter. The activities she saw were exactly the kinds of things she knew Violet would love.
There was one bout of homesickness. When it came, a counselor stayed with Violet and told her funny stories about her cat until the feeling passed. It was a small moment, but sometimes those are the moments that matter most. A child discovers that missing home doesn't mean she can't stay, that someone will sit beside her when things feel hard, and that she can feel uncomfortable for a moment and still find her way back to laughter. Somewhere between those moments, camp became hers. By pickup, Violet wasn't simply a child who had attended a camp for kids with heart conditions. She was Agent Blueberry, a friend her cabinmates didn't want to leave.
More Than a Shared Diagnosis
What if one of the greatest gifts of meeting someone who shares part of your story is discovering how many other things you share, too? At Joyful Hearts, a scar doesn't have to be the first thing that makes a child different. It can simply be one small thing they have in common. The bigger conversations can be about camp activities, counselors, inside jokes, friendships and, apparently, Skyline Chili.
One of Violet's biggest discoveries of the week was that her new friends from Ohio could not believe a Kentucky kid had never eaten at Skyline. It has since been added to the family's summer bucket list. That small story says something important about belonging. Violet went to camp because of something that happened to her heart when she was a baby. She came home talking about friends.
"The Made The Whole Summer"
For Erica, Violet's experience carried another kind of meaning. She remembered the newborn who needed heart surgery. She remembered the uncertainty that came with it. And even now, with a healthy, active 10-year-old, some of that worry remains. In her message to Dr. Pater, she asked him to share her gratitude with everyone who made Joyful Hearts possible. "They absolutely made the whole summer for Violet," she wrote. "And frankly, they made the whole summer for me."
Camp Joyful Hearts, offered through the partnership between Cincinnati Children's and Camp Joy, creates a place where children with heart conditions can experience camp while surrounded by people who understand their medical histories. But what happens once they arrive is about so much more. They get to be campers. They make friends, laugh, miss home and discover they can make it through. They try new things and create stories they'll tell long after their bags are unpacked.
And sometimes, they find a group of friends who hold on a little tighter at pickup because nobody is quite ready for the week to end. Violet will be back. Her camp besties have already made her promise. And somewhere along the way, there will probably be a first trip to Skyline, too.
We are grateful to the families who trust Camp Joy with their children, to the Cincinnati Children's Heart Institute team who helps make experiences like Joyful Hearts possible, and to every counselor and staff member who creates the small moments that children carry home with them. Sometimes the best evidence of what camp can do is found in a goodbye that no one wants to say.