Summer camps at Brigadoon Village are made for kids who don't often get the chance to leave home for a day, let alone a week. They are designed for children with chronic illnesses and special needs and at camps like this, nurses are essential.
Judy Grant is one of the camp’s favourite nurses and after five years, she is retiring.
“Whether we're doing an activity or whatever she's always joining in,” says camper Christopher Howard.
“She always took care of us, and we're really going to miss her,” says camper Isabella Stavert.
Jen Kelday is director of programs at Brigadoon Village. She says to be a good camp nurse you also have to be part camp mom.
“A lot of what she deals with is tummy aches and homesickness,” says Kelday.
Beyond the tummy aches, the campers have chronic illness or special needs, which make the nurse’s job even more crucial.
“Having the nurses here that are knowledgeable, I know makes the parents feel at ease. So a lot of these parents have never even had a babysitter before,” says Kelday.
For Nurse Judy, the best part of Brigadoon is seeing the kids forget their illness and just be kids.
She remembers one camper who was afraid staff wouldn't remember to give her medication at the start of camp.
“I come up to her, and I tapped her on the shoulder. She turned and she said ‘what?’ I said ‘I have your pill’ and she said ‘oh, I forgot my pill’ and I cried all the way back,” says Grant.
It's that kind of caring that makes her so well loved by staff and campers.
Congratulations to Judy Grant, our Maritimer of the Week!
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