Every summer, hundreds of children spend a few days at Victory Junction – a camp for kids living with complex medical and physical needs – to escape the realities of the challenges they may face on an ongoing basis.
Still, the health needs of these children can’t be ignored when they’re at the Randleman, North Carolina-based camp founded by NASCAR’s legendary Petty family.
For the campers to enjoy the best possible experience, they must take any needed medications on the same schedule that they would at home. Campers – and their parents – must also have assurances that properly trained medical personnel will be available to treat them if a medical need arises.
Thankfully, Victory Junction is fully equipped in these areas, thanks in large part to its director of medical operations, Amy McDowell, and a robust team of staff members and volunteers that typically includes at least six on-site nurses each week of camp. The team includes a pediatric ICU nurse, an emergency room nurse, and medical personnel especially trained in the diagnoses most campers deal with.
In addition, Victory Junction has what it calls its Body Shop – a room stocked with various medical supplies designed to meet the everyday needs of campers. Among the vast array of items found here – and paid for by generous donors to Victory Junction – are diabetic and basic first aid supplies, IV therapy, respiratory and feeding care, urinary catheters, and sunscreen.
On camp check-in day, parents hand-deliver all medications in their original bottles to a Victory Junction team member, so there’s never any confusion about who a certain medicine belongs to.
The goal is to put the minds of both campers and their parents at ease with regard to the medical piece of their stay at Victory Junction.
“The key to having it covered is our application process, which usually starts in December before camp,” said McDowell, a registered nurse whose medical credentials include a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and Master of Science in Nursing. “We reviewed over a thousand applications for this summer. The parents provide a lot of information about what their camper needs, and the physicians supply us with info on what the kiddos need to be successful at camp. We review them early, and then once we have kids that are accepted to camp, our medical team is going back and calling parents at least a week or two before camp and just kind of getting updates.
“It’s really just communicating with the parents, and we do a lot of asking, ‘How do you do this at home?’ It’s just picking out those details and how we can fine-tune it and work with parents to make their home schedule work with the camp schedule.”
McDowell and other members of the medical team also never hesitate to reach out to parents once camp weeks are underway.
“My philosophy is that I don’t want parents having any surprises when they come pick their children up from camp,” said McDowell, a mother of four. “If their child scrapes their knee because they fell, it’s, ‘Please call the parents and let them know.’ If you start a child’s feeding and something just doesn’t seem right, it’s, ‘Please don’t assume you know, but please call the parents – they are the experts.’
“So, we are on the phone touching base, not to bug parents, but we’re not going to assume that we know. We always call parents and ask them.”
McDowell considers it “an honor” and “very humbling” to be tasked with ensuring that the children at Victory Junction can have fun and make lifelong memories without needing to worry about whether they’ll have the proper medical care and attention when they get there.
“It feeds my soul. It really does,” McDowell said. “I get more from the children, I’m sure, than they get from me. They really just provide a sense of true purpose and what it is to care for the most precious people on earth. The Lord gives us these beautiful children and expects us to take care of them. It’s just amazing. I just love it. Every day.”
To sign up to camp, volunteer, or join the summer staff, and to learn more about Victory Junction’s application process and program offerings – including its family weekend camps and day programs – visit VictoryJunction.org/Discover.
