Summer camp aims to break cycle of addiction between generations

Camp Mariposa may seem like a storybook summer camp, but campers say their stories are far from it.

The national, year-long program teaches children the tools they need to deal with addiction in their families. Traditional camp activities are combined with support sessions led by trained professionals, with a focus on preventing drug and alcohol use.

"I never knew anybody else who had the same kind of experience as me before I came here," said 11-year-old, third-year camper Madison Timmons, whose father has struggled with addiction. "I remember one time he showed up at my school and I thought he was just having fun, but I later learned he was intoxicated. I was in preschool at the time."

About 3,500 campers have come through the program since it started in 2007.

"We're teaching kids not only what addiction is and that it's a disease and how substances really hijack the brain, but then we follow that with coping strategies," said Renee Mezér, director of Camp Mariposa in the Pennsylvania woods.

A 6-year study found that 94% of the camp's participants had not gotten high, according to research conducted by the LSU Institute for Public Health and Justice.

Kids attend Camp Mariposa between the ages of 9 and 12, a key period in understanding and breaking the cycle of substance use disorder, experts say. Children of a parent with a history of addiction are between four to eight times more likely to develop a problem with addiction, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Jason Strecker, Madison's father, says he's currently sober from the hard drugs he started using at age 12. At times, Strecker says, his addiction was strong enough to come before his daughter, whose name is tattooed on his neck.

Madison says it felt like she lost a parent and that she had to grow up too soon.

When asked about the impact on his daughter, Strecker said, "It sucked, because I didn't want it to be like that. We were really a strong family unit, and I thought I was gonna be able to get it this time, and I really, really did and then I just started using again."

Dr. Barbara Schindler, the medical director of a program at Philadelphia's Drexel University for families struggling with addiction, says there needs to be more "immediate access to treatment" and "an understanding of all the things that somebody needs in order to engage in treatment."

This summer marks Madison's last as a camper, but she plans on returning next year as a junior counselor. In the meantime, she has this message for others going through similar struggles: "You'll make it."