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Gluten Free at the Michael Jordan Flight School Basketball Camp

Hello, I’m back from L.A. and ready to explain what happened over the last two weeks. Two weeks ago, I left with my mom early in the morning and drove to Santa Barbara. At 2:00, I started the Michael Jordan Flight School Basketball camp in the UCSB basketball gym with some friends and we started getting divided into age groups, then teams.

Because of my disease and it was an all day camp, we had a few extra steps to make sure I was safe. My mom brought food every day to the cafeteria so that I had gluten free food to eat. We talked with the cafeteria manager and he let us use a special refrigerator for all of our food. I did not eat any of the cafeteria food, even the fruits and vegetables, because they was a high chance of cross contamination from all the other kids. It is hard to always eat food that is different from everyone else but it was the only way that I could go to the camp and not get sick.

Anyway, our age group was the Big Ten in college basketball and our team was Ohio State. That was all what happened on that first day. The next day, camp was from 8:45-9:30, and we got a team picture of Michael Jordan!!!!! Later that day, our team played two teams from our age group, but we one one game and lost the other. Our team ended the camp with 3-3 record, but we practiced a lot and played good teams. Even though our team was not the best team around, we still had a lot of fun playing basketball. On the last day of camp, everyone got an autograph of Michael Jordan, camp merchandise, and college basketball cards of former NBA players. Even though this paragraph is really short, camp was really long, and I can’t wait to go next year.

Jason

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‘Just Do it’ with Michael Jordan…in Santa Barbara…surrounded by gluten

Hi Everyone,

Summer is in full swing and Jason is getting ready to attend the upcoming Michael Jordan ‘Flight School’ basketball camp (info at: http://michaeljordanbasketballcamp.com/ ) in beautiful Santa Barbara next week. This is the first time that Jason will be attending a week long ‘gluten-FULL’ camp away from home so has been a bit of work preparing for the fun. Wanted to share what we were doing to prepare for the camp to help others as well as seek out suggestions.

Jason loves basketball…I mean he REALLY loves basketball…so when a good friend told me about this camp and how their kids were attending, I was torn. Obviously, I would love to give him the opportunity to attend such an amazing camp where he gets to meet and play with MICHAEL JORDAN, for goodness sake, but was completely freaked out about how logistically we could do it. I literally did not sleep the night we needed to register trying to figure out all the ins and outs of how we could keep him safe. In the end, we decided that we would use this as a ‘teachable moment’ with him and ‘figure it out’. We constantly tell him (and live by the belief that) he can do ANYTHING – so wanted to be a good example for him on figuring out how to make it happen. in sum, teach him to 'just do it!'!

Our first issue – Camp in Santa Barbara. This is generally a sleep-away camp so most kids are just on their own for the 5 days. We just couldn’t do that. Even if I could get some confidence that meals could be prepared safely, I was really concerned what would occur if he did get sick accidentally and how the camp would handle it. As most of you know, accidents usually occur – especially when playing a sport where everyone is touching the same ball after eating gluten-full snacks – and wanted to make sure he would be taken care of correctly. I am sure the camp would have the best intentions but couldn’t expect them to deal with that sort of situation. So the plan was I was taking time off from work and coming down to Santa Barbara for the 5 days in the middle of summer (he better appreciate this when he is older).

Our second issue – the all day schedule. The camp goes from roughly 9 am to 9 pm everyday with the kids learning, playing, eating together for the full 5 days. This schedule requires we figure out ways to safely feed Jason lunch, dinner, and a bunch of snacks throughout the day. My first calls were to the camp and then to the dorm at Santa Barbara that would be providing all the meals.

After a few ‘hit and miss’ conversations with folks not really understanding what we needed, I was able to get a hold of the food service manager at the café. We discussed what was available to us and quickly agreed that there was too high a risk of cross contamination for Jason to eat any of the prepared food during camp. After further discussions, he then offered to give Jason dedicated refrigerator/freezer space and access to a microwave during the camp that should enable us to make this work. I really appreciated his time and willingness to help us figure out a safe solution for Jason.

Obviously, we prefer having his experience be as ‘mainstream’ as possible but just felt the chance was just too great to trust any of the food available. This puts more work/requirements on us but at least creates a very clear dividing line for Jason when at camp. It also lowers the risk of him getting sick (that would mean missing the camp entirely) so definitely worth the extra work.

Final issue – prepping Jason – Jason will be in a new ‘gluten-full’ environment with people not familiar with the diet on his own so need to ‘empower’ him to make sure he is prepared for the camp. We started this week with determining what foods we will bring for him to eat during camp (since he will need to prepare, etc. on his own). I find making an agreed upon ‘menu’ improves the likelihood that the food will actually be eaten with my picky son. Working out the menu in advance also helps me make sure I will have all the ingredients/materials that we need on hand during camp.

Since Jason will be in charge of ‘preparation’ during the day, we are also spending some time on working a microwave, reading directions, etc. Seems simple but, as a member of a family that makes most things from scratch in a GF dedicated kitchen, Jason doesn’t have much experience in eating prepared meals.

We plan on arriving early to camp so we can check out the café and load our goodies in the assigned refrigerator as well get comfortable with the processes that Jason will need to follow. I plan to also use this time to ‘remind’ my lovely 12 year old how he will need to constantly wash hands, not rub his face, etc. during the week so doesn’t get accidentally glutened from other kids on his basketball team (or glutenball team as we sometimes call it).

We are looking forward to the adventure and will report back in a few weeks. If anyone has any other suggestions, I would love to hear from you. Please use the link in the upper left with any comments or questions.

Laura

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