Community Partnerships Profile: YMCA

Empowering the Youth

Camp Glucose Participants, Summer 2019

Tri-City Medical Center is honored to highlight the Joe & Mary Mottino Family YMCA as our COASTAL Commitment partner of the month! Together, we are dedicated in improving the quality of life within our community by providing opportunities to advance health and wellness.

The Joe & Mary Mottino Family YMCA serves the communities of Oceanside, Vista, Fallbrook and Bonsall and is a satellite facility of the YMCA of San Diego County, a non-profit organization that serves over 400,000 San Diego residents. The mission of the YMCA is to enrich the lives of the youth, promote a healthy lifestyle within the community and provide a welcoming atmosphere for all people to achieve their full potential.

Camp Glucose

In our partnership with The Joe & Mary Mottino Family YMCA, Tri-City funded a new summer program in 2019 called Camp Glucose for children with diabetes. In summer 2019, Camp Glucose provided 16 diabetic children with a free week-long camp full of encouragement, education and camaraderie. Campers got the opportunity to come together and share their experiences of living with diabetes, get health tips from a registered nurse and nutritionist, and most importantly, enjoy one another’s company—singing songs, swimming in the pool, playing laser tag and much more!

With support from Tri-City Medical Center, each Camp Glucose family also received a free 6-month family membership to the YMCA to continue their journey on maintaining a healthy diabetic lifestyle. To conclude the week of fun, campers got to hear from Eric Tozer, an elite athlete with Type I diabetes who completed the World Marathon Challenge, running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. The message from Eric Tozer, who is also a YMCA family member and motivational speaker was one that had been emphasized throughout the week—diabetes should not hold you back from reaching your highest potential!

Overall, our partnership with The Joe & Mary Mottino Family YMCA provided not only a safe space for these families and children, but a foundation for them to advance their own personal health and wellness together. As Type I and Type II diabetes become more common within our communities, it is crucial to provide these spaces and platforms of education for people of all ages. We are honored to have been able to kick start this platform alongside the Joe & Mary Mottino Family YMCA.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Camp Glucose was unable to meet in the summer of 2020; however, Tri-City and The Joe & Mary Mottino Family YMCA are currently outlining a new program offering to promote exercise, nutrition and mental health for young YMCA members. More on that in Fall 2020!

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