MDA Summer Camp provides thousands of kids with muscular dystrophy and related muscle-debilitating diseases “the best week of the year.” At MDA Summer Camp, kids are living beyond limits in a place where anything is possible. It’s a week where they’re free to enjoy adventures like horseback riding, swimming and fishing, develop lifelong friendships, and build self-confidence and independence.

Our nearly 75 weeklong summer camps — offered at no charge to families thanks to our supporters who fund the camps — give kids with limited muscle strength and mobility a life-changing experience in an environment without barriers.

MDA Summer Camp offers a fun and safe outdoor experience, along with opportunities to engage in a variety of activities such as adaptive sports, arts and crafts, camp dances and much more. In addition to all of the fun and friendship it offers, MDA Summer Camp enables campers to stretch their comfort zones and grow in independence as they spend a week away from home and permit someone other than their parents to provide personal care. Sure, there’s an abundance of fun and games at camp, but if you talk to MDA campers, they’ll tell you the real benefits come in a much subtler form — the lifelong friendships, the increased self-esteem and confidence, and the chance to spend at least one week of the year in a place where physical disabilities are the norm rather than the exception.

For parents and guardians, MDA camp provides a brief break from their roles of caregiver for a child with neuromuscular disease. It’s a place where parents know they can send their children for a week of summer fun and, at the same time, be assured that their child’s medical and physical needs will be met by a team of dedicated health professionals and trained camp volunteers. MDA staff and volunteers assume all camper care, including physical and emotional support, allowing parents much-needed time to attend to their own needs and, in some cases, spend some special time with the camper’s siblings.