Allergy 250K Melbourne Camp March 2025

Friday afternoon and evening

The peer mentors, volunteers and staff arrived ready for a fun weekend at Lady Northcote Adventure Camp, Melbourne. They enjoyed the challenge of ‘leap of faith’ on the Friday afternoon before the younger campers joined us on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning

This camp was the first time we included 8 and 9 year old ‘day campers’ who only attended on the Saturday.

We started with warm up games to help everyone get to know each other. The kids were split into four groups by age, and they engaged in age-appropriate activities such as low ropes, flying fox, raft building, canoeing and giant swing. These great teamwork activities tested our muscles, balance and endurance and we communicated with our team-mates along the way. Morning tea was some very tasty blueberry muffins, brown sugar biscuits and a selection of fruit and snacks. For lunch we had salad wraps with a choice of chicken, ham or felafel.

Saturday afternoon and evening

During the interactive health education sessions, we had some fantastic group discussions with volunteer health professionals including allergy nurses, allergy dietitians and a psychologist. We played lots of games then cooled off with some water games as it was a scorching 37 degrees!

For dinner we had Spaghetti Bolognaise or vegetarian pasta. The apple crumble and raspberry sorbet for dessert was very popular.

Sunday morning

We merged our groups to just two groups and we did an activity called the Amazing Race. This involved campers completing different challenges around the campsite in teams.

Parent Q&A sessions

We ran a Q&A session for parents of the day campers on the Saturday afternoon and a session on Sunday afternoon for the parents of the kids who stayed overnight. Both sessions were well attended by the parents, and they received helpful advice from a clinical immunology/allergy specialist and a psychologist. Some of our peer mentors also shared their experiences in response to the parents’ questions.

What did the campers think of the camp?

• “Making new friends that made me feel welcome and comfortable and being in a dorm with them.”
• “The staff are super nice. So are the peer mentors. And I could finally eat things I’ve never eaten before.”
• “…the staff were really, really nice and caring. The food was awesome and the activities were really fun.”
• “I got to meet new people, play games and learn more about my allergies.”
• “The food is so good and I can finally eat everything on offer.”
• “I felt completely safe eating all the food. My nerves didn’t explode at any point.”
• “The food made me feel really comfortable. And the staff here are lovely. They can make miracles. Also meeting people who are just like you.”

What did the parents think of the camp?

• “…she loved the activities, the food and really connected with the wonderful staff, mentors and the other kids! Such a supportive environment really helped relieve [her] nerves about staying over the night…”
• “From the moment we arrived at camp, all of the staff and mentors were so friendly, caring and welcoming and I knew [she] would be in safe hands.”
• “My daughter had an amazing time. Thank you so much to everyone involved!”
• “To be able to send [her] along to camp and for her to feel ‘normal’ not the different kid with allergies was such a heart warming moment for me as a parent. She has not stopped talking about all the fun activities and the things she learnt in the education sessions. This program and what you and all the mentors and staff do for the kids is invaluable by giving them a safe space to navigate their allergy world.”
• “[He] had such a great day and absolutely loved the activities, as well as the information sessions, but most of all I think it was about being around other kids with allergies, eating some delicious food without having to worry about allergens (he was particularly impressed with the blueberry muffins and wants the recipe) and generally just feeling comfortable and accepted.”

Camp wrap up and thanks

We brought together 32 school-aged kids and 12 peer mentors with severe allergies and everyone had so much fun!

A huge thank you to our allergy dietitians and the camp catering staff for creating such a tasty menu while also managing 49 different food allergies and other special dietary requirements. It was great to work with a caterer who had experience in catering for a food allergy camp as we had used this campsite for an Allergy 250K Young Adult camp previously.

These camps rely on the support of healthcare professionals and peer mentors who volunteer at the camps. We thank all the health professional volunteers and peer mentors who gave their time over the weekend and helped us make the camp a huge success!