Trina Filan  0:00  
 Thank you for joining us for this episode of talking health in the 406, where we're one community under the big sky. I'm Trina Filan, a public health evaluator.

Margaret Mullins  0:10  
   And I'm Margaret Mullins, a social determinants of health program coordinator. We

Trina Filan  0:14  
have with us today for people to talk about and incredible youth camp here in Montana for kids with type one diabetes camp Majda, which stands for the Montana youth diabetes Alliance. Our guests are To nya Fuhrman, Marci Butcher, Mike Collins, and Teresa Jordan.

Margaret Mullins  0:42  
For everyone listening out there, there are several different types of diabetes. And today we're specifically talking about type one diabetes, we don't really have good Montana specific data for kids with type one diabetes, because of the way that we collect data. What we do know is it's a complicated and significant chronic condition. So we're really glad to have the opportunity to talk with this group of people we have here today about this great camp and what they've been able to do for kids diagnosed with type one diabetes. So welcome, everyone. Welcome. Thank

Trina Filan  1:15  
you all for taking the time to talk with us. We'd like to start with a brief introduction from each of us. So if you could tell us your name, and a little bit about how you're connected to the camp. Let's start with Tonya. Hi, my

Tonya Furhman  1:31  
 name is Tonya Furman. I am the founder of Montana Youht Diabetes Alliance (MYDA). I have been a type one diabetic for 30 years now. So I've attended as a camper counselor. And now I'm proud to be the Executive Director.

Trina Filan  1:44  
Thank you, Teresa. How did you get involved with the camp?

Teresa Jordan  1:48  
I'm Teresa Jordan. And I got involved with camp MYDA. Because my daughter who's now 14, she was diagnosed with type one diabetes five years ago. I've been going to the camp for a couple years now as a camp counselor, AKA a helicopter parent. And, and then I just fell in love with it. And then I also stepped on to the board as the community outreach liaison, so it's been a lot of fun. And that's how I've been connected with MYDA.

Margaret Mullins  2:20  
Awesome. Thank

Trina Filan  2:21  
you very much, Mike. We know you were a couple of different hats. In this case, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your involvement?

Mike Collins  2:30  
Sure. I'm Mike Collins. I live in Kalispell. I'm a actually a type two diabetic. And I've been involved in diabetes causes for many years through Lions Club and ended up being the President of the Board of MYDA  currently, so tended to gap for the last three years. It's been a blast.

Trina Filan  2:54  
Excellent. Thank you, Mike. And last but not least, Marci who is also one of our good colleagues here at DPHHS. Marci, can you introduce yourself and talk a little bit about your involvement?

Marci Butcher  3:08  
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Marci butcher, I'm a dietitian and certified diabetes care and education specialist. I've been in the diabetes field for my whole career, over 30 years. And my husband has type one diabetes, and he's been living with type one for over 30 years. So type one has always been near and dear to my heart. I was a pediatric diabetes educator back in the day, and helped at various diabetes camps. And then I met Tonya, about five years ago, and just fell in love with the vision of the Montana youth diabetes alliance for providing camp. And then the other thing in terms of my job at the state Diabetes Program, is I hear a lot about the financial barriers of living with diabetes. And a piece of the Montana youth diabetes alliance is providing out of pocket financial assistance for those families needing assistance with diabetes supplies costs. So I was all in 100%. When I chatted with Tonya, and I am now sitting on the board of directors.

Trina Filan  4:20  
Wow. There's a lot of passion at this at this conversational table. Thank you all for sharing it. So we're going to dive in to some specific questions. And then we'll just see what happens. And

Margaret Mullins  4:34  
I have so many questions after even just hearing your introduction. So so I think I'll start with Tonya. Tonya, can you just tell us a little bit more about yourself and sort of your motivation for starting your work with camp MYDA?

Tonya Furhman  4:49  
Absolutely. So like I had mentioned I've attended camps, as a counselor and as a camper. It was provided by the American Diabetes Association and unfortunately, the American Diabetes Association lost funding for Montana, which then provided a great opportunity for me to step in and create a grassroots nonprofit. specified for families and youth with type one diabetes here in Montana. Were completely funded by Montanans, fundraisers, and personal donations for the first two years wasn't doable to have a camp by the first year we figured out facilities and funding and events and things and how we were going to put on a camp. Creating that board creating a medical team. And so on. In the first year, we ended up doing was day camps. So we packed up our team. We had a day camp in Flathead at Flathead Lutheran bible camp on a Monday, loaded everything up into a trailer loaded everybody else up and we traveled to Helena had a day camp and Hel ena on Wednesday, loaded up and then we all drove to Billings and had a day camp in Billings on Friday. So we were able to have her overnight residential camp, but we were able to do the day camps. And since then, we've been able to have the five day overnight residential camps and average about 120 Kids, our first successful year, we followed up with that spring with a family retreat that we have done annually since then, which is a weekend getaway. First one was in Fairmont last year was in Butte. And that includes kids and families and adults with type one diabetes, to come and share their experiences, be educated, find resources and collaboration. And the original creation of MYDA was the idea of the out of pocket that mercy mentioned. And that's been a near and dear thing to our heart, to be able to help several families throughout the year, each kid has an opportunity to apply for this out of pocket assistance up to $500 per year, per kid. And when I say kid kid, that's up to the age of 25. That's a great opportunity for you know, most college kids and so forth. And so I'm just really proud of everything that we've accomplished. And everything that we have that's coming up for the future.

Margaret Mullins  7:22  
It's amazing when I listened to this, and I think about the evolution and the creativity of creating the day camps when you are at a really difficult time period. That's an incredible and ingenious idea. talk just a little bit more, you said a few of the things that you did in order to get the organization going like funding and you know, some of the facility organization, but there is so much that goes into putting this camp together. And I think it would help you know me to understand better what some of those steps are. Because I know it's a lot of work.

Tonya Furhman  7:57  
It is a lot of work. And let me tell you, it takes an army and I am blessed. I have an amazing army. The people that are involved are again, like you said, very passionate, very dedicated. Diabetes touches their lives. And we're able to overcome and conquer this daily battle with all these amazing people in our life that make things like this happen. You're right, it takes medical committees, it takes activities and programming. It takes a huge, huge dietary team. We do a dance at camp, we have arts and crafts. We do nutrition and diabetes education games. It takes lifeguards, which surprisingly is very hard to find for lake time. We have campfire. So you know coming up with the songs and skits and dances and we do talent shows. And this year, we're excited to include low ropes and high ropes courses. But it's it's a year long process to get five day camp set up for all of these kids. And another thing we're incredibly blessed with is we are able to bus our kids from Billings. So we have a bus that brings kids from Billings stops in Bozeman, Helena, Missoula, and then comes to the camp. And then on Friday buses and back, which is a huge resource to these families because camp is Monday through Friday. So instead of them having to take their time off work and gas and money, we provide that tool for them.

Margaret Mullins  9:34  
And there's just so many aspects to this that I think people don't realize. I mean, that transportation piece is huge that parents would have to take off time on a Monday and a Friday. There are so many parts of this that affect families. And that really helped give me a better appreciation of all the different aspects. One of the things I'm curious about your MYDA a website is full of great information, but I was wondering if you could sort of summarize For us, you know what the camp is like, you know, for the kids, for our listeners, maybe what what a day at Camp looks like.

Trina Filan  10:09  
And I suspect this might be everybody wants to say stuff. Questions. That's Yes. Okay.

Tonya Furhman  10:17  
So we do each each cabin wakes up we have younger boys, younger girls, middle girls, middle boys, older boys, older girls. Each group has a lead medical support medical medical students and non medical counselors that help get these kids up. And for the day, they do blood sugar checks, if needed, they look over the menu to see what's going to be available for that meal time. Average out their carbs pre dose for insulin for their meals, we have breakfast, which is a huge family style breakfast, you know, educational opportunities right then and there all day every day for, you know, how many carbs Did you eat? Instead of just average? Do we need to take any more insulin? What's the activity after breakfast, is that high activity is that low activity are we going to need more insulin. And you know, like I said each day contains arts and crafts. Exercise of some sort, we do a lot of basketball relay races, things like that capture the flag. And then educational diabetes and nutrition, we try and make it super fun. And then we do special activities. Like Like I mentioned, the talent show camp fire the dance. We have an ice cream social at the dance we do might have milestones, which is us recognizing and given everybody a hoorah off for the years, they've lived with type one and Concord each day. You know, Tonya really beautifully summed that up, because there are so many things that we do every day. But

Teresa Jordan  11:53  
I think it's really important to emphasize how life changing this is for the campers to see their transition from the beginning of the week to the end of the week, and the confidence and the comfort level, walking in their own skin. And and then there's some that have, you know, this isn't the first rodeo for them. So the excitement of getting to connect with their people, again, and so it's very exciting. And there's just there are so many activities all the time, like we really strive to make sure that these children feel like they are allowed to totally be themselves and feel so safe while doing this. Because some of them this is the very first time they've ever been away from home, they've ever been away from their either parent or caregiver. So it is such a monumental week. And again, just the transition from the start to the end of the week. It's such a beautiful thing to experience as an observer. And then of course, I'm biased. I mean, I think it's one that my daughter has just her confidence has just through the roof since she started participating in MYDA events. So it's wonderful.

Margaret Mullins  13:01  
I love to hear that. I think that you're right, that comfort in numbers and sharing that experience with other like minded and, you know, similar kids, just the benefits and the power of that is is really extraordinary. Yeah,

Marci Butcher  13:16  
I just wanted to just come in Tonya and Teresa and just really great comments on what camp looks like. And they particularly Teresa on the very personal experience that kids have. It is extraordinary. It really is. And while there's you know, teachable moments throughout, you know, the whole week of camp, you know, diabetes education, so to speak, coming as a diabetes educator, those are the things that that we think about and have been planned in, but there's teachable moments all throughout this whole week, to see them gain confidence in in having those teachable moments and learning and practicing all week. And then coming out the other end, as you know, really confident and making amazing friendships. And you know, really it's about being a kid there. But yet having the commonality of of everybody else having diabetes, and I'm not by myself and I am not the only one. And and they're going to just really progress by leaps and bounds throughout this whole week and moving forward.

Margaret Mullins  14:22  
I'm curious, do a lot of the kids return year after year?

Mike Collins  14:26  
Yes, a lot. A lot of them do. And I wanted to add to Marci 's just a little bit. I do the part of the videos at camp and I get to interview some of the kids afterwards. And diabetes is very difficult. And for these kids, they can feel really isolated. And the after camp what are the common phrases? Excuse me. Um, I'm not alone. I'm with people like me. Ah, Very cool.

Margaret Mullins  15:01  
Thank you for sharing that mic,

Marci Butcher  15:03  
I'm tearing up to,

Margaret Mullins  15:04  
you know, truly profound. Yeah, they're so impactful. And to make a difference in the life of a child like that is really something I was

Tonya Furhman  15:13  
gonna say that's an additional task there at Camp is getting all those pictures, all those videos, all those memories. So it's on credibly important to these parents to see their kids on Facebook. And every day, we're updating these pictures in these videos of what their kids are doing. And, man, the parents just love that. So our people that are taking pictures and doing these videos, it's life changing for the parent who had to also leave their comfort zone and leave their kid at camp a lot of times for the very first time. And it is incredibly hard for those parents to do that. In their in their comments of when they come to pick their kid back up, and just going, Wow, this is a completely different kid. He won't, he won't let me give him his shots anymore. He has to take your shots or, you know, he's telling me how many carbs we had when we got home for dinner. And you know, another roll that we don't give enough credit to is Jeremy, he just found us a new registration platform. If there's anything and everything we need, we go to Jeremy and he makes it happen when it's on the tech side. So I want to give huge kudos to him to for making reports, you know that we needed done any forms, he keeps up on all of that stuff. So that's a definitely a role that doesn't get as well acknowledged as it really should.

Margaret Mullins  16:42  
And thanks for reminding us that, you know, type one diabetes, especially in children is a family affair. And we have to remember that at all times. There's so many people involved in that in that process. And I'll direct this at Tonya first, but again, anybody chime in because you probably recognize different aspects of this. But what would you consider the biggest challenges of running the camp,

Tonya Furhman  17:04  
Umm, food. Up Apparently our kids eat three times the amount of food is any other camp, oddly enough. We don't have the commonsary are open for these kids to purchase just random snacks. It's pretty food controlled. Not that they don't get fed a ton. We have breakfast, and then we do snack and we do lunch. And we do snack and we do dinner and we do snack at campfire. So I mean, we're feeding these kids constantly. You know, you have to think about not only are they getting those snacks, but do we have fruit snacks for low treatments, you know hypoglycemia, low treatments, the amount of food our kids consume is, is huge. And we're running them all day long. So it just takes a lot of planning. Brooke, our dietary leader spends all year planning this, we provide all of our own snacks. So we look at you know, who can we get to donate for ultimately 200 people because we have to count most of our volunteers are type one, as well. And so we're not we're doing three snacks a day, and then hyperglycaemic snack. So you know, and we want to keep them nutritious and not necessarily low carb, but carb conscientious. And that would be that will that is what I would say is always been the most challenging. You know, obviously training is huge. We want everybody's trained on medical and non medical. So if I have, you know, Dr. Lee come into camp to be a doctor, Dr. Lee still has to find out how to have fun with the kids and be involved in not only their diabetes care, but activities in swimming and, you know, showing these kids that I may be a doctor, I may be a type one, but I still need to be involved in this activity and have fun and, and partake and get the whole experience of what camp really has. I

Mike Collins  19:04  
wanted to add that one of our big struggles in planning this and implement it is getting enough qualified medical personnel to volunteer a week of their time to help out the kids. We have to have medical personnel on board because there's decisions about how much insulin they need to take. Things like that that are requires a medical person to be involved. So we can offer this to more kids if we had more medical volunteers

Teresa Jordan  19:35  
Off of what Tonya and Mike said, the getting the med staff and because we could in fact take a lot more kids, those slots would be filled. I mean, once registration goes live, it's less than 24 hours and that camp is filled. So it's such a valuable thing to do every year and we have the population of children In Montana, that would fill that camp up. If we had more open slots, no questions, they would, they'd be filled. And so it's extremely important to have those, the med staff, the qualified med staff, the trained med staff. And so if you're interested reach out to MYDA, as we welcome you with open arms, I

Marci Butcher  20:22  
think that's very true. The medical staff is, is huge. And it takes incredible number of medical volunteers to run a camp like this. But I just want everybody to know as well, that there's a team of medical staff that are planning throughout the year, to ensure that the needs of the kids are all met, and that everybody is safe at all times. And that takes an incredible amount of planning by the medical team. And then training of the med staff that are there. And and you know, just making sure that we have enough medical staff health professionals involved at camp, it's really meaningful if we can just expand the number of kids that are able to access camp. And that means we have to have a good number of volunteers every year.

Tonya Furhman  21:15  
And we can only open it up to 100 out of the gate. So to give you a perspective of of what we currently have available. And you know, like Teresa said, we can really fill that up if we had put medical personnel. Thank

Trina Filan  21:31  
you for that excellent discussion. We have a couple of questions that are for Teresa, as a parent and counselor, Teresa, and this kind of relates to the clear emotion that you all expressed on seeing the joy and transformation that the campers experience. Teresa, what went into the decision making process for you to allow your child to go to camp, MYDA, what was that like? And then what persuaded you to become a counselor.

Teresa Jordan  22:11  
So I really wanted to have Stella find her people, other children that are living with this all the time. Stella was diagnosed in January. And then it was like the first camp that we had found out about was going to happen in that following August. And we had gone to her specialists Claire Steinberg phenomenal. And the dietician Brooke Foth, she, they referred us to MYDA, and Stella right away showed interest, she was not nervous. She was super excited to meet other kids. And so it wasn't really a deep conversation or a long conversation, I was really excited to get her involved and keep her I guess mindspace where it was, she was very, she was like proactive, wanting to find things to make her more confident and more comfortable living with this. And that can be really challenging for young kids because she was nine when she was diagnosed. And so I just thought I've gotta keep her in this headspace and, and she has remained very positive about this. And I, I give a lot of credit to camp MYDA have because, again, it can be very easy to struggle with it and feel isolated and alone. And then she knew right away that there was a whole family of people out there that would always have her back. The one thing that she said was, mom, I'm I want to go but I've never I've never been away from you. So they need volunteers to. Could you go, but I don't want to see you every day. I'm like, okay, okay. And so I signed up and I was I was probably more nervous than her because I was like, oh, gosh, like I've never done anything like this. I mean, I've raised my own kids, but I've not done this before. I signed up and I actually wanted the little kids. I thought it would be really nice to kind of baby them because I'm, you know, they're just tiny. And they were even younger than Stella. So I signed up and I got the little kid cabin, little girls. And that was a life changing experience. Tony total life changing. Because you just Yeah, you see your own kids doing it. And you're like, yes, my kids really resilient. But when you see all these other kids and they're just so mentally strong that these kids are dealing with things that there's a lot of adults that can't handle what they're what these kids deal with. And so it was just so inspiring and rewarding. This whole experience and journey with these young kids that I was like, I'll never not do this. I'm never not. And then of course, it was just beautiful watching my daughter, just being comfortable in her own skin and meeting other people and being in totally engaged and enthralled in everything, every day. And it was just again life changing, life changing. If there's anyone listening that is wondering, oh, gosh, could I   do this? Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Because it was again, so rewarding to watch all this and be a part of it. And it was something to really be proud of, you know, MYDA is makes me proud all the time for the things that they do, and that I get to be a part of it too, along with all these children. So it was an easy decision to get involved a little nervous at the beginning. Easy. And so my first year, boy, they they made my heart melt. And I like I said, I just said I, I'm I'm always going to do this. My second year came back. And it was another amazing experience with more little girls. And, and it was amazing to because I showed up and then all the littles from the year before we're like Teresa, you know, and there's just so much to be in awe of right. And so it was easy. It was easy. And now I'm MYDA stuck with me now. Teresa

Trina Filan  26:19  
as a counselor, so we've heard a little bit about what a typical or a typical day or week can be for the campers. What is it like, as a counselor, what do you do?

Teresa Jordan  26:33  
Gosh, you know, because I do I have the little the little girls and so, you know, sometimes, you know, they've never even slept over at family member's homes, they haven't they've never had a sleepover before. And so I try to make it really fun. Sometimes I smuggle my own stuff in like bubbles coloring books, like the little nail designs, so I just want to make sure that they're as comfy and cozy and secure as possible. I tried to have structure for them because again, they're little and most moms of littles have a lot of structure routine, I want to give them that like okay, this is kind of like what my mom does. So it feels kind of like normal at home. But we we get up in the morning we do blood sugar checks, just like Tonya had mentioned. I have depending on how many campers are in my cabin, we have like a shower schedule. I mean, it is very, I really do try to break it down for the kids and but they do all the activities like the big kids. They'll do the lake time the arts and crafts that my littles love a game called Gaga ball obsessed with the game. And I really have to be on top of them for blood sugar checks after that, when I tell you they really work every carb off in their body with that one. But it's just a lot of fun. I mean, we we do all of the things that Tonya had mentioned and I don't get a lot of homesick. And so whenever you see one that's feeling a little down, you know, you just give them the the motherly, like hugs and love and ask them what's going on. And they're they're just so again, resilient, and their effective communication skills at that age are just mind blowing to me, because they will tell me exactly what they're thinking and what they need and what they want. And it's just a lot of fun. Their their innocence and vulnerability. It's, it's neat. So I love it.

Trina Filan  28:43  
You also talked a lot about the differences in the campers between when they arrive and when they are done. Is there anything that stands out and this is maybe an everybody question to you as characteristics that they can develop and sustain into their non camping time. Have you seen any of that or

Teresa Jordan  29:12  
so what I what I see from my littles is they're not because sometimes when they come in, they're they're away from home and sometimes they're a little nervous of like the food, whatever, what am I going to do with this food like I'm I'm so it has to be so controlled and they're just a little nervous. So to see them at the beginning of the week, being more and more comfortable with Hey, I'm actually going to go ahead and I'm going to load my plate up and I'm going to eat it because I can eat whatever I want. I just have to cover it. You know, Hey, Teresa, can I get to Can I get seconds? Can we cover it? Yes, you can. So yeah, go for it. So them understanding that it's okay. Because again at that young age, it can be intimidating still like what's okay to eat their comfort level with Food. And so it's it's fun to watch that it's fun to watch them from go from what works at home, their comfort level at home with different sites where they put their, their decks coms, or their Omni pod, their pumps, so site changes, to see their comfort level at the very end with, OK, I'm going to try a new place, or I'm going to suggest a new place to my mom, when I get home. They're excited about all these little things that, again, it's just building their confidence. And I would say, that is the biggest takeaway, if you're confident and you understand that you are capable of managing this, then that is obviously something that they're going to be able to stick sustain throughout their whole lives. And so if we're giving them all these tools in this week, and then they returned, and we're reinforcing, and we're giving them more, it's just again, life changing. And there's, again, so many things that we do with them that I really think they can carry over into their years with diabetes. Teresa,

Margaret Mullins  31:07  
I was just thinking that these kids are pretty good probably talking all you counselors into singing, dancing and doing skits to

Teresa Jordan  31:15  
all the time, all the time. It is the funnest thing because it's it's uh, you know, you want to, you want to be embarrassed and you want to have fun, you want to let go, because you want the kids to feel like it's okay to just let go and have fun because we also have those age groups at camp that, you know, it's like, body's changing. I'm not only type one, but my body's changed all the things and they're kind of scared. They're kind of nervous, a little timid. And then they see Tonya running around in a unicorn or dinosaur costume like an inflatable one. And you got the Incredible Hulk running down. All the we're just having fun. And yes, you want to be a goofball because the more you're a goofball, the more you're engaged, it trickles over, it becomes contagious. And by the end of the week, everybody's screaming off the top of their lungs, all these camp songs and dances and the talent show, oh, gosh, let's talk about the talent show. I just want to say the kids are each other's number one fans when it comes to being so supportive of seeing their peer get up. Because that's really intimidating. That's nerve racking. I get nervous watching these little sweet souls go up there, and they're just giving it their all. But everybody's just screaming and cheering and having a good time and support of one another. It's it's crazy. That makes me want to go you guys should come. Yeah, it does.

Margaret Mullins  32:41  
I was a camp counselor, myself and the kids love nothing better than to have the grown ups, you know, at their level doing all those silly things. I agree with you completely.

Teresa Jordan  32:51  
Yeah, it's so cool to watch. I'm gonna turn my

Margaret Mullins  32:54  
attention for a moment to Mike. Mike, you talked a little bit about your involvement and your connection with the Lions Club. And I just like to hear a little bit more about how you actually got involved and why the Lions Club thinks this is an important program.

Mike Collins  33:12  
Been a Lion almost as long as I've been a diabetic Lions Club is organization based totally on service to your communities. We have Lions Club International has a list of causes. And diabetes has been one for many, many years. Being a diabetic I am the district which is the state of Montana diabetes chairperson. So we have given to the diabetes camps in the state of Montana for many, many years. And I've just been involved in diabetes myself, because it's, I was a ADA. Board Member for a while in Montana. And so when COVID hit I we have all these clubs that like to donate to diabetes camp and I reached out. I didn't even know it was Tonya reached out on Facebook and said, Hey, we got money we want to give or what's going on. Because the COVID had kind of an ADA evaporated for Montana for financial reasons. And that's all I got hooked up with Tonya. And then eventually, Lions has a foundation called Lions Club International Foundation, and they do grants. So we put together Lions in the state of Montana, grant to run the initial camp. We got a $40,000 matching grant through Lions. And that's how I ended up with MYDA. And it's an amazing group of people and an amazing experience that that's why I'm here so

Margaret Mullins  34:56  
And do you find that the camp that the funding for the camp from all those different sources is hard to sustain or perhaps with, you know, now that you've mentioned the videos and the things that you do at the end of camp, that you're sort of able through different meetings and, you know, conversations to keep that flow, that there's good energy in the background from the Lions Club and others to do that.

Mike Collins  35:19  
Fundraising is always difficult. I mean, and things have really gone well for MYDA. But we always need money. It's this is an expensive proposition that costs us we're not sure the number this year, roughly $1,400 per child, at camp, and we try to be able to let anybody come to camp, whether they can afford it or not. So we have a sliding scale. If you can afford to send your kid to camp. We, you know, we asked you to do that. If not down to you can't afford a nickel. That's fine. We can have a we have a way to get you to camp also. We just have a big fundraiser in Helena, we are a 501 C3. So it's tax deductible donations. Besides planning camp, we're always working on finding money. That's just part of the charity games. We appreciate every and any donations. That helps us out a lot. Yeah, I

Margaret Mullins  36:17  
can, I can hear it's a year round

Marci Butcher  36:18  
event. And I just want to thank Mike for being here. And in talking a little bit about Lions Clubs efforts. Because Lions has been an incredible supporter of Montana youth diabetes Alliance. And there's clubs all across Montana, into individual little communities that are putting money towards MYDA as well, meaning it's very grassroots, and so very appreciated on a very local and individual level. And the lions has had diabetes as its mission for a long time. But even prior to that vision, has been a key driver and goal of the Lions Clubs. And of course, vision is one of the complications of diabetes, potentially. And the loss of vision is for some people, a huge quality of life thing that they deal with. And so for Lions Clubs to fit the vision aspects and diabetes together, and then wanting to support strong and healthy communities and strong and healthy kids. living with diabetes. I think it's pretty incredible and much, much gratitude to Lions Clubs across Montana.

Margaret Mullins  37:28  
I second that, while keeping my eyes open for for the Lions Clubs and all our communities, and they do so much great work. So thank you, Mike, and for that effort across the state. I got one more question for you, Mike. Tonya mentioned the transportation for the campers. And I just wondered if you might talk a little bit about that, because I can imagine that that is no small feat, depending on where all these campers are, as I suspect they're there all over the place. So getting from one end to the other. And back again, can you just tell us a little bit about how that works?

Mike Collins  38:02  
Well actually probably Tonya you you can speak a little better. We actually have had the last couple of years, a donor that has been paying for that bus. That's Intermountain

Tonya Furhman  38:13  
Health out of Billings, we have a wonderful doctor over there who's on their board that is very supportive of MYDA. He is also a type one. So that's how him and his clinic are able to give back is to make sure that that is funded. Thank

Trina Filan  38:30  
you very much. Okay. We are going to ask Marci, a couple of questions. Now. Marci, you are a very big hearted, and very passionate advocate for people with diabetes, and for diabetes care. What drove you to be a board member? How did you get involved with all of this because in 2019, when I first started here, you were talking about a

Marci Butcher  39:04  
cool camp that was getting going. As soon as I found out about MYDA. I w as like, everybody, we need to support this camp and do all we can to get this this camp rolling because it is going to meet a huge need in Montana. I guess in terms of why I got involved, and I alluded a little bit to this in terms of in my job as the diabetes education coordinator for the Montana Diabetes Program at the state health department, a lot of what I hear and that in the data shows this as well is that diabetes is so expensive to live with and my own family experiences that with my husband, having type one diabetes, and the out of pocket costs for diabetes supplies, etc. It can be phenomenal. Even with insurance and for people that don't have adequate insurance or no insurance, it can be devastating in terms of health outcomes. And so that's that's where I hear a lot of issues is diabetes care and be an inequitable thing, because of ability to afford care and self management supplies. So when I had an incredible conversation with Tonya, and I get just a little choked up, because it's such a powerful thing is helping people with out of pocket financial costs. Nobody should not be able to afford good care and to be able to take good care of themselves in living with diabetes, and to be able to provide out of pocket costs assistance to and I can't remember the numbers of families, it's like 20 families or 20 kids. A year, I think last year, Tonya, you can jump in with numbers, maybe

Tonya Furhman  40:51  
I think we actually had 32. Last year, oh, my gosh, 32 families. Yeah. And we, we actually increased our budget of $10,000, in September, to accommodate the remaining months of the year. So yeah, increased it to 15,000. And hopefully be able to keep increasing that being able to help more family. So

Marci Butcher  41:12  
yeah, it's really quite an incredible, and the families are so very grateful. So it's $500 per kid per year. So we just recently had an application for twins that have diabetes. And if you can imagine one child with diabetes in a family, two or more, the financial burden is very real. And so to be able to help provide that assistance to families. It's truly that's one of the things that, you know, in addition to camp, which is you've heard from Teresa and Tonya and Mike, I mean, it's it's incredible. And I've been at camp, it's absolutely over the moon, beyond incredible for families, but also just the challenges that I hear about financially and caring for your diabetes. That's one of the things that really drove me to participate in the board and know that I'm helping move things along in a really good direction, because MYDA has a really good vision. But

Margaret Mullins  42:18  
I suspect we have parents that are listening to this. And if they're like me are really excited about the prospect of camp for their child, but you know, how we are about our children, we're very worried. And although you have spoken to the medical help that you have, and parents like Teresa that are there to comfort your kids, you would have concerns. So I'm just sort of wondering what you tell parents to help alleviate some of that worry, because they'll tell us, but it's different. My child's different my child needs XYZ. What are some of the things that you do to reassure them? Obviously,

Tonya Furhman  42:58  
the medical aspect is a huge part. They're not going to have the amount of medical around them any other type of their, in their year. And, um, you know, we're talking MDs, NPs PAs RNs registered certified diabetes educators. I mean, our medical team is absolutely flooring. But, you know, we get that each kid probably has its different challenges. We've had, you know, family saying, Well, little Johnny only eats chicken nuggets. What the parents don't realize is when we sit little Johnny down at a table, and he's sitting with eight other kids who are eating what's available. Kids want to fit in, kids want to be doing what other kids are doing and the likelihood of little Johnny going and eating something outside of his chicken nuggets is incredibly high. You know, and same with activities just comfort them that we're gonna give them this week to spread their wings and find out things they may or may not like or things they like to do or not like to do and and give them that that freedom of us knowing not all of little Johnny's you know niches are just gonna let him be him. For me as a as a camp counselor.

Teresa Jordan  44:18  
You know, during our check in process, you know, the parents are bringing their children over getting them all set up. And I try to find ways to ensure that I connect with every single parent as we are walking them to their cabin I've really tried to be right there because it is it can be a lot of kids in one space at one time checking in and then getting you know sent off and and some parents there some parents are ready for it. Some parents are like, Go Go be you and some parents they they are walking with me they're talking with me. You know that phrase read the room and you know what parent you need to connect with. So they feel know that they are safe leaving their child, they're confident leaving their child. And, you know, there's been many times where I've hugged the the mom, like, it's okay, I got you, everybody will be okay. And, you know, there are ways to connect with parents even while we're there if if they are really concerned or struggling, but I have found that just taking those extra minutes with each of the parents, or grandparents, but just spending that little extra moment with them, showing them around the cabin, kind of giving them just a brief rundown of the cool activities we're about to jump into, you know, it goes a long way connecting with those parents and having those little moments to a heart to heart, and then I share my personal experience with it as well.

Margaret Mullins  45:47  
Alright, so I suspect there are many parents that are sold on Camp, it's, it would not be surprising. How would a parent go about then getting their child signed up and then ready for camp, the sort of preparation on the child end of things, and that's for anybody.

Tonya Furhman  46:07  
So we do ask that you go on our website, which is www.mydiabetesalliance.org. And sign up for our newsletter. And there's a place on our website as well to RSVP your camper for camp. And once you sign up for that newsletter, and you sign up to RSVP, they'll get a notification to sign their kid up for camp 24 hours before the public gets that same link. You know, like Teresa said, that fills up in less than 24 hours. A little side note on our website. I did, I made our website, my diabetes Alliance, which is MYDA

Teresa Jordan  46:49  
because I wanted our families to have ownership and being part of Montana youth diabetes Alliance. If that makes it easier for anybody to remember what our website is that might help. If the parents are, you know, go to the website and check things out. And they're again, questioning whether this is going to work for them, you know, the the pictures and all the things that we have done in the previous camps are there. So they can kind of go through those galleries. And then if they do go ahead and proceed, it is really cool, what comes out leading up to camp, the communications and, you know, they send out the checklist. So the kids start getting excited, like what to pack, you know, and we have days in which are themed and so then again, it's fun for the parents and the child to then get together and be like, okay, cool, what are we going to do for Montana day that we just to give you an example. And so it can be really fun getting all of these things put together. So then by the time the family goes to drop off, you know, the kids have all their things, and they're excited to put their outfits on and get going. So it's not like they show up. And it's a big secret or surprise, there is some preparation for the families to do ahead of time. And it doesn't have to be like, Oh, they have to go shopping to do all this stuff. It's it's really just what's at home, have fun with it. And it's good for both the child and the parents.

Trina Filan  48:18  
You've talked a lot about the ways you keep people your parents informed during camp and how you keep kids connected, or families connected via the website, are there any other ways that either the campers, volunteers, or the parents stay in touch with each other throughout the rest of the year.

Tonya Furhman  48:43  
So we do not have a platform, specifically for MYDA for them to communicate. So we do advise that they you know, camper, share their numbers, share their Instagrams or whatever to keep in communication. But surprisingly, there was last year a group of about 12 or 15 kids, older, older kids that created their own meeting space online, you know, MYDA have wasn't involved, but they did it on their own. And those kids talk every week, one of my favorite things about camp is with this certain situation, they're they're talking about, they're not talking about boys and girls, they're talking about their diabetes. And at camp, it's really fun to walk from one activity to another with these kids. Because that's what they want to talk about. I mean, they're at diabetes camp, and it's really amazing when you're walking with an eight year old kid who's like, so what kind of insulin do you use? Or how many years have you had diabetes? And so I mean, I've gone to camp repeatedly, year after year because these kids give me so much diabetes motivation to better take care of myself, be more involved, be more in the know with my diabetes, and they inspire me, we do our best to try and inspire them. And it's just easy to sit there and talk about diabetes with somebody else with diabetes. And it just gives them such a great community in a great setting, to sit there and ask all the questions and figure it out. And not feel alone. It just tickles my heart.

Marci Butcher  50:29  
And I would absolutely echo that I when I was at camp last I was in a cabin with middle school girls. And they were all trading cell phone numbers and had promised that they would take it keep in contact. And what I heard later is that they do these relationships that they build are lifelong friendships that I think it's such an amazing thing to watch, develop,

Trina Filan  50:55  
we have just a couple more questions for you. And the one I have for you relates a lot to what you've been saying the complexity of living with diabetes, and helping people who are living with diabetes, how do you vet and enroll and train volunteers for the camp so that they are up to speed and up to snuff to help kids.

Tonya Furhman  51:22  
So there's a lot of training that goes in weeks prior to camp, we do a lot of online training. Obviously, each year, we learn new and different ways to make things better for training and for camp. This year, we're going to do something a little medical team is going to do something a little different. I'm kind of excited about it. On Sunday, our orientation day, all of our volunteers who have type one are now considered campers, and all of our non diabetic volunteers medical or non medical or non medical are then our counselors. So these counselors are approaching us and saying, Hey, Tonya, what's your blood sugar? Oh, it's 106? Well, how many carbs do you think you're going to have at dinner? Oh, probably 60? Or what do you think about eating? Can we count this together? What's your insulin to carb ratio? Are you on a  pump? You know? What would you do? If you were at home? How would you go about this? What are we doing after this meal is at high activity. So these counselor or medical folks are going to be taking care of us type ones on the first day and getting kind of a one on one hands on experience. The students that we've had, that have come who, you know, oh, yes, I'm very educated and diabetes, typically leave that week going, Oh, my gosh, I had no idea about diabetes. I learned more in this week than I've learned in three years in meds in med school. And, you know, that's our hope. And our goal is that we can change some of these students, fields to diabetes and get more diabetes care in Montana, but tons and tons of training going just for the liability aspect of it. And we don't want to put anybody in an uncomfortable situation. So all everybody there, you know, there's leadership roles. You have your lead, medical, your sport, medical, students, things like that. And everybody knows who their their go to person is. So hopefully, there's never an uncomfortable, you know, situation. There's always there will always be somebody around to ask a question to.

Trina Filan  53:43  
All right. Thank you very much, Margaret. Yes,

Margaret Mullins  53:48  
you have all done an incredibly great job of explaining about the camp, the effort that goes behind it, the needs of the kids, I just really want to say thank you to all of you for this amazing conversation. And just to sort of wrap it up, I think it's really helpful for us to think about the big picture, as we consider ways to improve public health options for people with chronic disease. Your camp is really a huge inspiration for what we can do when we work together in our communities. So I just want to thank you all so much. On behalf of Trina and myself, and the crew behind the scenes. Thank you also to all of you all of our guests who are so passionate about this camp. If anyone listening would like more information on what we discussed today. Please visit the website, TalkingHealthInThe406.mt.gov. And if you haven't already, please remember to rate review and subscribe to our podcast. And until next time, be healthy Be well.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai