Creating Space Where People Belong: How Camp O’Dayin Became More Than Summer Camp
Some organizations begin with a business plan. Camp O’Dayin began with a personal experience.
After volunteering at a heart camp in California, Sara Meslow came home asking a simple question: Where do children with heart disease in the Midwest go to find this kind of community?
The answer surprised her.
There wasn’t one.
Instead of accepting that reality, Sara decided to build something that didn’t yet exist. What started as an idea has grown into Camp O’Dayin—a nonprofit that has spent more that 25 years creating medically safe camp experiences where children with heart disease, and now their families, can find connection, confidence, and community
On this episode of A Better Way, Sara shares how personal experience became purpose, why creating spaces for belonging matters and what she’s learned about leadership along the way.
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Episode Highlights
Building What Didn’t Exist
Sara’s journey didn’t begin with a strategic plan.
It began with lived experience.
As a lifelong heart patient herself, she understood what it felt like to search for people who truly understood life with heart disease. After volunteering at Camp del Corazon in California, she experienced that sense of belonging firsthand.
Returning to Minnesota, she couldn’t stop thinking about the children who didn’t have that opportunity closer to home.
As she describes it:
“It was on my heart. I couldn’t stop thinking about these kids.”
That conviction led her to take a leap of faith. She left her job, assembled an advisory council, found early supporters, visited camp locations across Minnesota, and worked with medical professionals to create a camp designed specifically for children with heart disease.
Designing More Than a Camp
Creating Camp O’Dayin meant thinking about details most camps never have to consider.
Medical safety was built into every decision.
The camp needed air conditioning because many heart patients don’t tolerate heat well. It needed a gradual path to the beach, proximity to a hospital, and even a location where a helicopter could land in an emergency.
Doctors and nurses helped establish medical protocols before the first camper ever arrived.
That preparation helped parents feel confident sending medically fragile children away from home for what, for many, would be their very first overnight camp experience.
The Community Sara Never Expected
Sara always believed in the impact camp could have on children.
What she didn’t anticipate was what would happen afterward.
“I knew the outcome of camp,” she says. “I never dreamed about this other outcome of really becoming a family.”
Today, Camp O’Dayin extends far beyond one week in the summer.
The organization now offers family camps, parent retreats, moms retreats, dads weekends, and year-round programming that supports the entire family—not just the child with heart disease.
Campers grow up together.
Families stay connected.
Graduation announcements, weddings, and life milestones continue long after camp ends.
What began as a summer camp has become a lifelong community.
Creating a Safe Place to Belong
Every Camp O’Dayin session begins the same way.
Families meet one-on-one with a nurse to review medications, answer questions, and ensure every child is medically prepared for the week ahead.
Just as importantly, campers are introduced to what the organization calls The O’Dayin Way.
The values are simple:
- Helpful
- Encouraging
- Accepting
- Respectful
- Thankful
Those principles guide every program the organization offers and reinforce that Camp O’Dayin is both a medically safe place and an emotionally safe place.
As Sara explains:
“This is how we roll.”
Innovation Starts With Lived Experience
Looking back, Sara sees Camp O’Dayin as the intersection of everything that shaped her life.
Her own experience with heart disease.
Her background in social work.
Her passion for youth development.
Her lifelong love of camp.
Together, those experiences positioned her to solve a problem no one else was addressing.
When asked what she would tell someone who feels called to create something their community is missing, her advice is simple:
“Listen to your inner voice, be really in tune with what’s going on in your heart, and talk a lot about it with all your people.”
Sometimes innovation begins by recognizing a need.
Other times, it begins by realizing you’re uniquely equipped to meet it.
Looking Toward the Future
More than 25 years after welcoming its first campers, Camp O’Dayin continues to grow.
The organization has expanded programming into Wisconsin, added year-round opportunities for families, and hopes to continue supporting siblings, parents, and entire family systems affected by childhood heart disease.
Even as programs evolve, Sara says the mission remains the same.
Camp O’Dayin will continue creating welcoming spaces where families feel accepted, supported, and connected—and where every child has the opportunity to simply be a kid.
A Better Way Forward
Sara’s story is ultimately about creating space where people belong.
One experience at camp inspired her to imagine something different for families in the Midwest.
Twenty-five years later, that idea has become a community that continues to grow with every camper, every family, and every life it touches.
As Sara reminds us:
“When your vocation and your calling are the same thing, you’re pretty darn lucky.”
Sometimes a better way begins by asking one simple question:
What if this existed?
And then having the courage to build it.