Brigadoon partners with NS pharmacies to offer kids a new prescription: a week at summer camp

Published

HALIFAX, NSFeb. 16, 2023 /CNW/ – Nova Scotian caregivers picking up medication for their kids this month could find a new prescription in their bags—an invitation to a unique summer camp that supports children with health conditions and other life challenges.

The pill bottles, labeled with messages showing what camp can provide that medicine can't, are being distributed by select pharmacies across Nova Scotia. (CNW Group/Brigadoon Village)
The pill bottles, labeled with messages showing what camp can provide that medicine can’t, are being distributed by select pharmacies across Nova Scotia. (CNW Group/Brigadoon Village)

Brigadoon Village has partnered with select pharmacies across Nova Scotia in a creative effort to reach the families of kids who are eligible for its overnight camp programs. Through this new campaign—developed in partnership with Halifax-based creative agency, Wunder—caregivers will learn about the therapeutic benefits that a camp experience offers. In each prescription bag, they will find an additional “pill bottle” labelled with prescriptions for what camp can do that medications can’t such as, “There’s no medication for making new friends,” or “For building self-esteem.” Another bottle prescribes, “There’s no medicine for learning new things.”

The Brigadoon “prescriptions” are rolling out in select pharmacies now and over the next few months as camp applications have just opened for the summer.

Brigadoon Village, a year-round camp facility in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, hosts 15 medically-supported camps each summer for kids ages 7–18. Each program is designed to provide a therapeutic and fun camp experience to children who may not have had the opportunity to otherwise go to camp. It allows kids with the same illness or challenge—for example, kids with celiac disease, heart conditions, Crohn’s disease, cancer, asthma, or parental mental illness—to be together and just have fun without worrying about their conditions.

The non-profit camp, the largest of its kind in Canada, has a “pay-what-you-can” fee structure that makes camp accessible to all who wish to attend. No Atlantic Canadian child is turned away because of finances.

And no one is turned away because of where they live. Children from across the country can come to Brigadoon. About 3,500 children attend the camp each year. And last year, it unveiled new accommodations, a new arts building, outdoor cooking facility and other new amenities as a result of its successful $12.5 million fundraising campaign.

“Coming out of a pandemic, and after recently finishing an expansion of our camp, we really wanted to help our communities understand what we’re here to do: help the extraordinary children of our region living with illness or other challenges just be ordinary kids.” Shared Jenn Ross, Director of Operations at Brigadoon.

With camps for varying degrees of illnesses and challenges, families who think their child might not qualify to attend are invited to reach out and ask about programming. Brigadoon strongly believes that every child, regardless of the life challenges they face, should have the opportunity to experience the transformational and therapeutic effects of camp.

To learn more about the 2023 camps, visit brigadoonvillage.org/camps

Quick facts:

  • Brigadoon Village is a non-profit organization that provides camp programming for children living with a health condition or other life challenges in Atlantic Canada.
  • The Village is a state-of-the-art recreational summer camp facility located on Aylesford Lake, in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. In addition to our accommodations and dining lodges, our facilities feature an outdoor cooking facility, a ropes course, and Dave’s Place, an arts and culture centre with a pottery kiln.
  • With the support of charitable partners and community donors, Brigadoon Village operates on a “pay-what-you-can” fee structure, so no child in Atlantic Canada will be turned away due to financial reasons. 85% of applicants require funding to attend a camp program at Brigadoon.
  • The first of its kind in Atlantic Canada, and now after its recent expansion in 2020, the largest pediatric medical camp facility in Canada, Brigadoon Village offers up to 30 specialized summer camp programs for children and youth with chronic illnesses or other life challenges and has a capacity to welcome over 3,500 children each year.
  • A fully licensed medical team manages the on-site Medical Centre at camp to dispense medication and provide treatment while a kitchen team ensures every meal served at camp is tailored to each child’s specific dietary needs.
(CNW Group/Brigadoon Village)
(CNW Group/Brigadoon Village)

SOURCE Brigadoon Village

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