I hate to be a Debbie downer in this community specifically but as someone who was both a camper and counselor for One Heartland for 4 years this is a huge misrepresentation of the camp in recent years and its mission statement. I was a counselor for our HIV/AIDs session (i was there for all 7/8 sessions 2019) and while it is true that those campers were vastly diminishing (almost every camper either had a parent/close relative with HIV but were not positive themselves and there were a handful that were adoptive from countries with less prenatal care as over 99% of births from HIV+ mothers in the US result in a negative child because of retrovirals) this article completely fails to mention that 7 of those 8 week long sessions that Summer and many other years were serving other vulnerable communities as well. I can’t promise these numbers are completely accurate as it was almost 5 years ago but we averaged around 80-150 per session of all others and only 40-60 in our HIV session. So the vast majority of campers affected by this closure were still looking forward to and seeking these resources to this day. The closure was very sudden and management had changed since i was last involved but others i know who were also employed by them have said it is very odd/sudden and i find it really hard to believe this is the real reason when there was a waiting list of kids from other demographics wanting to join every year.
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u/trollfunkk Jan 03 '25
I hate to be a Debbie downer in this community specifically but as someone who was both a camper and counselor for One Heartland for 4 years this is a huge misrepresentation of the camp in recent years and its mission statement. I was a counselor for our HIV/AIDs session (i was there for all 7/8 sessions 2019) and while it is true that those campers were vastly diminishing (almost every camper either had a parent/close relative with HIV but were not positive themselves and there were a handful that were adoptive from countries with less prenatal care as over 99% of births from HIV+ mothers in the US result in a negative child because of retrovirals) this article completely fails to mention that 7 of those 8 week long sessions that Summer and many other years were serving other vulnerable communities as well. I can’t promise these numbers are completely accurate as it was almost 5 years ago but we averaged around 80-150 per session of all others and only 40-60 in our HIV session. So the vast majority of campers affected by this closure were still looking forward to and seeking these resources to this day. The closure was very sudden and management had changed since i was last involved but others i know who were also employed by them have said it is very odd/sudden and i find it really hard to believe this is the real reason when there was a waiting list of kids from other demographics wanting to join every year.