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About Us » Mission
and Need
Mission
To create a fun, safe, and supportive camp experience for
children with serious illnesses. Flying Horse Farms will provide multi-season camp and retreat experiences for seriously ill children and their families
at a custom-designed facility. The camp will support their medical needs, offering care, education, and adventure at no charge to the camper families.
The Need
Think about the child whose whole
life changes in an instant.
When children are diagnosed with a serious childhood disease,
their whole lives are changed in an instant. The childhood
they once knew is taken away from them. They are often taken
out of school, and the hospital becomes their second home.
Some children are in the hospital for weeks or months after
their initial diagnosis, and most likely children are tied
to hospital visits for months on end for chemotherapy treatments,
spinal taps, infusions, surgery, and a host of other medical
procedures.
Flying Horse Farms conducted an extensive needs assessment
with Ohio Children's Hospitals and determined there is a
great necessity for a camp facility that can provide fully
accessible accommodations, amenities, and care for seriously
ill children, who would otherwise be unable to attend camp.
When a disease strikes, it not only affects the patient and
their parents, but also has a profound impact on siblings,
as well as, extended family members. It forever changes an
entire family, throwing them into an emotional, physical,
and often economical crisis. Flying Horse Farms will offer
programs to serve the entire family.
There are more than 34,000 children in the state of Ohio
suffering with serious illnesses such as cancer, sickle cell
disease, heart disease, hemophilia and related blood disorders,
as well as other life threatening illnesses that could benefit
from a camp experience.
Over the next 10 years, we hope to serve over 25,000 children
and their families.
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"When I saw
what the camp experience could do for a child, it became
my passion. It became clear to me that what could not
be treated at the hospital, could be treated at camp;
it was liberating to me from a medical standpoint.
The possibilities for my patients at Flying Horse Farms
are unlimited. This comprehensive camp will show kids
who have been scarred by horrible diseases that life
is real and there is whole future for them on the other
side of their disease."
Gerard Boyle,
MD,
Acting Chairperson of Pediatric Cardiology,
The Children's Hospital at The Cleveland Clinic |
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