Flying Horse Farms is a camp where every kid has the opportunity to experience more. For campers with serious illnesses and their families, a dose of camp brings laughter, joy, and respite back into their lives.
Campers embrace independence and build connections while caregivers are able to rest knowing that while at camp, their child can focus just being a kid.
Ready to come to camp? Applications must be completed by March 15 – begin yours today here.
What is Flying Horse Farms?
Located in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, Flying Horse Farms is a medical specialty camp that primarily serves campers with serious illnesses ages 8-15, with engagement opportunities for kids and adolescents aged 7-21. Camp provides programming at no cost to families, allowing campers to heal, grow, and thrive.
For kids with serious illnesses and their families, the journey to discover Flying Horse Farms often begins with uncertainty. It’s when a routine checkup for your kid shifts as the doctor confirms their diagnosis; it’s the call in the middle of the day when the specialist says, “your child’s test results reveal an abnormality”; it’s spending a Saturday afternoon scouring the internet, googling symptoms you’re seeing in your kid that weren’t there just a month ago because you can’t quite shake that nagging feeling. Ultimately, it’s felt during the long moments throughout the day you keep holding your breath. But then, Flying Horse Farms happens.
Part of the SeriousFun Children’s Network — founded by actor, philanthropist and Ohio native Paul Newman — FHF has provided over 10,000 camper experiences and more than 150 sessions since opening. Campers served have diagnoses including cancer, heart conditions, rheumatologic diagnoses, blood disorders, lung conditions, gastrointestinal disorders, craniofacial diagnoses, spinal cord diagnoses and mental health conditions.
For families, camp is a place they never imagined they could go. It’s where— amongst the unknowns of a diagnosis, smiles happen again. It’s where newness is met with love and joy instead of fear and anxiety.
Learn More & Apply to Come to Camp:
Campers bond with peers who understand and see them beyond their diagnosis and form lifelong friendships. They also learn to navigate their medical conditions, confidently gain skills, and find new independence that is carried beyond a camp session.
Leading with an equity-driven program design, FHF focuses on outcomes that increase a kid’s feelings of inclusion, reduce stress, strengthen family interactions, and develop an improved sense of self. While on-site, campers participate in activities like archery, boating, fishing, dancing, arts and crafts, ropes course, zipline, swimming, and more. Campers receive care as needed 24/7 from nurses, physicians and psychosocial team members in a well-equipped onsite medical facility, the WellNest—our urgent care in the woods.
For more information about the 2024 camp schedule, camper application, volunteer opportunities or how you can get involved, visit our website: www.flyinghorsefarms.org. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram @FlyingHorseFarms.
Questions? Email us at [email protected] or call (419) 751-7077.
Click here to experience the sights and sounds of camp.
Connect with a Camper- Meet Vivian!
Within 30 seconds of meeting Vivian, you will be smiling. Her wide grin and genuine excitement pull you in and remind you of the main task at hand: have fun.
Around camp the word “magic” is used a lot. Camper families often share “camp magic” is the easiest way to describe what happens at Flying Horse Farms. In the words of camper Vivian’s mom, Margaret “magic at camp is this: doctors teach you how to survive, camp teaches you how to live.”
When appointments and hospital stays are constant, camp provides a mindset and alternative space where healing, respite, and joy take over. Click below to meet Vivian:
Click here to get to know Vivian.
Email us at [email protected]
