On the Tuesday, August 25, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast: Camp Simcha in New York's Catskill Mountains gives children with cancer, chronic illnesses and complex disabilities a chance to experience summer camp with round-the-clock medical care. USA TODAY Youth Mental Health Reporter Rachel Hale explains how the camp helps kids gain independence and community while giving their parents a rare break from caregiving.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Summer camp is a rite of passage for millions of kids, but for children with cancer, chronic illnesses or complex disabilities, the medical care they need can make that formative experience nearly impossible to have. But at Camp Simcha in New York's Catskill Mountains, that care is built into camp life. Doctors, nurses, and therapists work alongside counselors, while kids swim, climb rock walls, and spend a few weeks simply being kids.
Hello, and welcome to USA TODAY's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Tuesday, August 25th, 2026. USA TODAY Youth Mental Health Reporter Rachel Hale visited Camp Simcha to see how it gives seriously ill and disabled children independence, community, and experiences many families once thought were out of reach.
Rachel, it's great to have you on again.
One of the things that comes to mind or comes through in your reporting is how much of these kids' lives can be shaped by what they can't do because of their medical needs. What happens when they arrive at a place that's built around finding ways for them to say yes?
Yeah. This is a camp for kids who, for maybe the other 11 months of their year, are really having to build their life around medical appointments or sometimes around having to say no to activities that other kids would be able to go to, or having to be in quarantine because of a condition. So this is this one place where, for the first time, they're able to kind of relax, and so are their parents, because it's a place where parents can drop their kids off and know that they're really being taken care of with that extra care that their kids need.
And this isn't just about having fun for two weeks. You saw kids take risks, gain independence, find community where they don't have to explain their illness or disability. What does that kind of experience do for a child who may spend much of the rest of the year feeling different?
I think the biggest thing that I understood from the kids who I interviewed is that it really gave them a sense of confidence. And beyond that, it connected them with other people going through something similar to them, maybe not someone with the exact same illness, but someone who also knows what it's like to grow up having things be different, someone who also has experienced going to normal school and having it be really hard sometimes. But in some cases, it's also connected people with other experts in their medical community. There was one family I interviewed who ended up being recommended a clinic that ended up really being in their own backyard in Cleveland from another camper there who had experienced the same illness. So it's connecting people with the community, but also giving them a confidence and sense of independence that maybe they wouldn't be able to get at home with Mom and Dad.
Rachel, you tell the story of Maya Popliger, who was seven years old when she told her mom she wished there was a camp she could go to. Tell me more about Maya's story.
Maya had grown up always wanting to go to summer camp, but a traditional camp really wasn't built for someone like her. She was diagnosed with Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome at six months old. It's a rare genetic disorder that gradually took away her vision over time, but also stunted her growth and caused muscle and joint pain. And in addition to that, she had a selective mutism anxiety disorder, which would sometimes render her kind of speechless, making it hard for her to interact with other kids her age.
So for a variety of reasons, her mom would've never felt comfortable sending her off to a normal summer camp. But her mom remembered that a friend had sent their daughter to Camp Simcha and thought that it would be a fit, and she ended up going for eight summers afterwards. And I spoke with her when I visited camp, and it was really amazing to hear from her about her journey of how her relationship with camp evolved as she got older, because maybe what started as I'm going to camp because I really want to be able to swim in the lake or do the ropes course, becomes something where there's more emotional support over time as her condition continued to evolve as well.
When I saw her this summer, she was in a wheelchair because of some of the pain that she was dealing with that specific week, and she also has a cane, and spoke to me about how her condition in her eyes has rapidly worsened, and it made it so that camp was not necessarily easy every day, but she still was proud of herself for being there. And so I think that as these kids get older, the role of the camp evolves too, to where it's not just fun all the time, but it's also answering these hard questions about the relationship with the illness, and how does this illness evolve as we get older, and how are we going to move forward with this as part of our life without it defining us?
One of the striking things about this camp is how rarely kids hear the word no. Campers who use wheelchairs climb rock walls. Paraplegic kids go zip lining. How does the staff balance giving these kids freedom and independence with the very real medical risks they face?
Staff goes through training each year, and they have a combination of staff who are volunteers and paid medical staff. And this medical staff comes in being prepared for really any ailment that could happen, in addition to the standard protocol that they have for the kids' chronic illnesses. So I was very impressed when I saw the hospital on camp, because it really... The way that someone there described it to me is that they're a hospital disguised as a camp, and it felt that way. It was a really fun and lighthearted place despite it being a hospital, but it was also really fully equipped for any emergency. So they've got a monitoring room, a resuscitation room, an ambulance, a helipad for transportation to hospitals. They can fly someone into the Bronx if they need. They're really equipped for any emergency that they would need, and staff also has trained themselves to be equipped for different illnesses.
They told me that they had one year where there was a child who was on dialysis, and so they had nurses go and get certified to administer that. Same thing with if they have a kid with diabetes, they've gone to conferences to learn more about that. So a huge part of parents being comfortable with dropping their kids off at camp is the amount of training that the medical staff goes through, and not just that, but that each camper has a designated counselor. And beyond that, some kids have two designated counselors, one who will stay overnight with them, depending on their condition. So it's really round-the-clock care.
It's true that the medical operation behind all of this is extraordinary, doctors, nurses, paramedics, therapists, a pharmacy preparing about 1,200 medications a day. I wonder, how do they manage to keep this going with it being something that's still fun for the kids?
I think a huge part of what helps camp feel lighthearted, even though it isn't always, is the counselors themselves really coming in and pouring themselves into this. The girls I spoke with who are counselors said that there's often a waiting list each year of people who want to be volunteers. So this is something that some girls, especially in the Orthodox community who are really familiar with this camp, grow up really wanting to be a part of, and I was amazed by the energy that these counselors had.
When I was there, I saw people dressed in matching outfits. Each day of the week, there was a different theme of camp, and there was a set of overnight counselors who stayed up late decorating camp in the morning to make it really exciting. When I was there, there was a dance party after lunch where everyone was included. This was a space where regardless of if there was a child in a wheelchair or with a mobility cane, they were in the center of the dance party as well. So I think just that acceptance and the excitement and energy that staff helped facilitate really makes camp feel like a special place, even when there are those hard conversations and hard moments, having that supportive environment there.
Rachel, there's another group getting something important from these two weeks. That's the parents. One mother told you she has two full weeks where she doesn't have to be on alert constantly. Just how important is this break for parents as well as kids?
Yeah, absolutely. I think that that's a huge piece of this, is that for these parents, these are kids, some of whom need round-the-clock care, so most of these parents don't feel comfortable leaving their child somewhere else unless it's maybe with a very close relative or someone who's fully equipped to be able to manage their condition, especially depending on the age of the child. And so these parents who I spoke to said that this camp has been a lifesaver for them because it's a rare break from being a full-time caregiver themselves. And it's not just the actual mechanics of maybe administering the needle hypotherapy or whatever it is, it's the decision-making that can come with it and the mental piece.
And so I had some mothers who told me this is the two weeks of the year where they don't have to do any decision-making or stress related to the chronic illness, and that's because camp starts prepping for next summer as soon as this summer ends. And so months before camp starts, there have already been phone calls where they've figured out what the treatment looks like, what's going to change with the treatment, they've met with the family. There are a lot of instances where treatment might change in the months or weeks leading up to camp, and camp is equipped to handle those changes as well. So parents really know that they're dropping their kids off somewhere where they can trust the staff. And beyond that, for some of these parents, this is the only break that they might have to really spend time with their other children or do other things in their life without having that stress. That was a recurring theme in parents that I spoke with, is that often, a lot of their medical attention can only go to their one child.
Rachel, your story comes at a moment when disability rights advocates are warning that moves by the Trump administration could weaken the federal commitment to helping people with disabilities live, learn, and participate in their communities. Against that backdrop, what did Camp Simcha show you about what it actually takes to create a place where disabled kids can fully participate?
I think a big piece was seeing how expensive it is to really run a camp like this and make this work, and at Camp Simcha, a two-week session at camp, which includes round-the-clock medical care, would cost about $15,000 per child. Families attend free through funding from Chai Lifeline, a Jewish nonprofit assisting families with medical needs. But it just goes to show that this type of care is not accessible for a lot of parents otherwise. And so I think it was really amazing to see that work in person, but also to realize just how much goes into making a camp like this run. I mean, they had three huge generators that keep camp up and running, so the stakes are just a lot higher at a camp like this than somewhere else.
There's a bigger idea of running through this story. Instead of starting with old reasons a seriously ill or disabled child can't do something, Camp Simcha starts by asking what needs to change so they can. What can our society learn from that approach?
I think that is the approach that a lot of kids with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities would like to see more in the normal classroom. I think the idea is that a lot of these families would love to see the attitude at camp continue to evolve throughout the rest of the world for the other 11 months of the year so that schools were a more accepting, accommodating place. A lot of these kids have had to switch schools to deal with their condition or to accommodate different medical needs. So I think that that message is really special at camp, but these families don't just want it to feel like a bubble there. They'd love to see those attitudes extend throughout the rest of society.
Rachel Hale is USA TODAY's youth mental health reporter. Rachel, thank you so much for sharing your time and your reporting.
Thanks for listening. Our stories come from USA TODAY journalists across the country. I'll be back tomorrow with a deeper look into a story that matters.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: At this summer camp, disability doesn't mean sitting out | The Excerpt