Marking its sixth year, Camp Cambria, a summer camp for children diagnosed with juvenile arthritis, welcomed 135+ kids and teens for a weeklong Minnesotan experience complete with archery, canoeing, fishing and all the other requisite camp activities. Food Network celebrity chef and Cambria brand ambassador Robert Irvine joined this year’s affair to provide a one-of-a-kind healthy cooking demonstration for the young campers.
“Being willing and able to educate individuals of all ages on the importance of healthy eating has always been the base of my mission and work,” says Irvine. “A major part of living with a disease like arthritis is being able to understand and navigate which foods help relieve symptoms and encourage stamina and strength throughout each day.”
“Like most people, I thought arthritis was an older person’s disease,” notes Cambria CEO Marty Davis. “I was stunned to learn that more than 324,000 children across the United States and Canada live with it every day. We founded Camp Cambria to change the lives of these children by giving them a place where they belong, providing joy and hope, and helping them meet other kids who understand their pain.”
Photography provided by Cambria
Irvine’s passion for helping build strong families shines a light on the power and influence that a strong family unit has at the very beginning stages of healthy lifestyles. “A family is healthier when each part is able to, in some way, support the others,” he explains. “Cooking meals together not only promotes community within the household but also allows for skills to be learned and for quality time to be spent together.”
So what are the first steps to achieving a healthy lifestyle? “It begins with examining what exactly it is that we are putting into our bodies each day,” Irvine notes. “Actively making and promoting the decision to be healthier is the way we can each count on growing toward a stronger future — one stronger than ever before.”
