Camp TLC serves campers age 9-16 with Spina Bifida and congenital neural tube defects. The Spina Bifida Association of North Texas provides this week long experience in June with medical support from Texas Scottish Rite Hospital, Children’s Medical Center Dallas, and Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth.

Camp TLC is a 6 day overnight summer camp for children with Spina Bifida ages 9-16. It is hosted at Camp John Marc in Meridian, TX ,a facility built for special needs groups. It is a fully accessible state- of-the-art camping facility that allows campers full participation in activities such as swimming, horse- back riding, canoeing, rock climbing, archery, camping, fishing, cooking, arts and crafts and much more. For one week in June each year, Camp TLC takes over Camp John Marc and houses almost 100 children with Spina Bifida. Spending time with their peers is one of the most important parts of this experience. They understand each other’s needs and abilities and can learn from each other and talk openly to one another. Many of them rarely see another individual with Spina Bifida except at camp or another SBANT event!

Accompanying the campers is a small army of volunteers consisting of nurses & doctors (mostly from Scottish Rite), men & women of all ages, college students and more. This group, along with the Camp John Marc staff, provide medical care, guidance and supervision to the campers. Their overall goal is to make sure each camper has fun, learns, becomes more independent, makes friends and feels just like any able-bodied kid going to a camp! Campers come off the bus exhausted from their week of fun, full of stories, sad to leave their friends and wondering what the theme for camp will be next year!

Many volunteers are needed to run this camp.  If you are interested in being a nurse or a counselor, visit https://www.camptlc-sbant.com/main/volunteer

Camp check-in day and pick-up day volunteers can go to:  https://support.spinabifidant.org/campaigns/30293-camp-tlc-2024-send-off