Kids get diseases like lupus, too. As researchers hunt better treatments, this camp brings joy

George Mihalcea

A doctor advising ... sleepaway camp? That’s how a 12-year-old diagnosed with lupus found himself laughing on a high-ropes course as fellow campers hoisted him into the air. “It’s really fun,” said Dylan Aristy Mota, thrilled that he got a chance at the rite of childhood — thanks to doctors reassuring his mom that they’d be at this upstate New York camp , too. Dylan felt good knowing if “anything else pops up, they can catch it faster than if we had to wait til we got home.” It may sound