Kayla Bertholf loves to swim. She also loves going to camp. The 11-year-old member of the Ashtabula YMCA Stingrays swim team was able to combine both loves as she swam laps at Swim for Diabetes with her eye on winning the Camp Ho Mita Koda Campership.
Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age two, the Ridgeview Elementary School fifth-grader has been a member of the Ashtabula YMCA Stingrays for the past three years. Exercise such as swimming helps Kayla manage her diabetes. “Swimming keeps me from getting ‘highs’ [high blood glucose],” she said. “And it’s fun.” The Stingrays team consists of 30 members between the ages of five and 16. Though Kayla has participated in Swim for Diabetes on her own for three years, this year, she asked her swim coach to make the 2011 Swim a Stingrays team effort. “My coach thought participating in Swim for Diabetes would be a good opportunity to get in some practice for the team.”
Kayla swam 100 laps and raised $1,400, making her the winner of a Camp Ho Mita Koda Campership. “I love Camp Ho Mita Koda because I’m not different there,” she said. “I like that there are a bunch of kids at camp with diabetes.” This will be Kayla’s fourth summer at camp where her favorite activities are swimming and horseback riding. This summer she’s looking forward to climbing the camp’s rock wall.
While Kayla has been busy swimming since 2008, her parents have been a part of Swim for Diabetes during those years, too. Her mother Karen has served as a pool leader and her father Jay has been a Swim volunteer at the Ashtabula YMCA. And while Kayla has worked hard to raise money for other diabetes organizations, this year she chose to raise funds only for Swim for Diabetes because of her love of swimming and especially her love of Camp Ho Mita Koda. Thank you, Kayla. We look forward to seeing you in the CHMK pool this summer!
Jay, Kayla, and Karen Bertholf
at Ashtabula Family YMCA