Page 3 - OASC June 2021 Newsletter

June/21
Minutes of the Wednesday, May 5, 2021 OASC Monthly Members’ Meeting...
} 23 members, 2 guests
} Chair: Maureen (Mo) Parkes, President, oAsC
Guest speaker: Lisa Gausman, Administrator, Ostomy Canada Youth Camp, with longtime volunteer Janet Paquet (co-president,
Ostomy Hamilton)
Order of business:
Mo called the meeting to order at 7pm, invited members
to stay for Jeopardy game at end of meeting, and introduced our speaker.
Guest speaker: Lisa Gausman, Administrator, Ostomy Canada Youth Camp
Diagnosed with Crohn’s at age 14, Lisa struggled in silence through 17 surgeries. In 2007, she discovered Ostomy Youth Camp and was inspired to volunteer to help shape a positive journey for youth living with an ostomy.
Ostomy Youth Camp is the only camp in Canada for kids with ostomies. Here, they encounter kids with everything from external to internal pouches, cecostomies to Mitrofanoffs (appendicovesicostomy)—all caused by diverse conditions: Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, cancer, birth defects, injury, trauma, Spina Bifida. For them, camp is a challenge they choose, an opportunity to push their boundaries through fully acces- sible outdoor activities like zip-lining, canoeing (even kids in wheelchairs!), white water rafting, climbing, swimming, etc. Key to the camp’s success is fellowship with other campers and mentorship by volunteers who had ostomies in their youth. These include many former campers, some of whom also serve on the camp committee supporting administrator Lisa. For example, head nurse Carly Lindsay (RN, NSWOC), Janet Paquet (diagnosed with Crohn’s at age 4), and Quintin Clark training as a doctor, along with found- ing admin Pat Cimmeck.
OCS partners with Crohn’s and Colitis Canada, in hosting the Ostomy Youth Camp at Camp Horizon in Alberta, subsidized by Easter Seals Canada. After 30 years, we are the longest partnering group there, so we get to choose our week (1st week of July). For more details, check out the NSWOCC/OCS webinar Lisa and Carly led at https://www.ostomycanada.ca/webinar-replay-ostomy-canada-youth-camp/
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