Camp Sweeney

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Camp Sweeney counselors lowering the flag

Camp Sweeney is an American summer camp located in Gainesville, Texas. It is primarily for children with type 1 diabetes and sometimes their siblings. It has been in operation since 1950.

Though it has normal summer camp activities such as swimming, hiking, archery, volleyball, canoeing, and arts and crafts, its many facilities are designed with the diabetic child in mind. Built-in blood glucose testing stations are scattered throughout the camp, and counselors carry monitors and insulin with them at all times. During meals, each camper has their food tray prepared with the right number of carbohydrates for their chosen diet. The campers also go to medical lecture every day so that they can learn how to better care for their diabetes.

The camp serves children ages 5 to 18 and divides them into age appropriate cabins. The campers get to choose which activities they participate in during the day. Counselors, college students who are often recruited from The University of Notre Dame and other colleges around the nation, help younger children learn to administer their own insulin shots or change their own insulin pumps sites.

The purpose of Camp Sweeney is to help children with diabetes learn healthy habits that they can continue after they have left camp, and to build lasting relationships with other children dealing with the same problems that come with having diabetes.

In addition to three summer sessions of 20 days each, Camp Sweeney also offers a one-week senior week, a five-day mini session, two family weekends in the spring and fall, and a five-day Winter Session.

Camp Sweeney is the home of an FCC licensed non-commercial radio station, KPFC-FM. KPFC-FM transmits on the 91.9 FM frequency and its translator, K206CD, transmits on the 89.1 FM frequency.