Good Medicine Camp

Good Medicine Camp

Introducing the first annual Good Medicine Camp!

Join our STEAM Summer camp for Native youth ages 12-18!

Dates are pending as we need donations to secure a nature retreat center on Potawatomi land.

Camper registration will be available as soon as we have secured a site date.

Donate below!

Your donation will be used to pay for lodging, meals, games, crafts, books for campers, travel scholarships, ensuring camp longevity, and more! Email elise@elisemaren.com to get on the camp reflections email list to stay up to date about how your donation impacted children.

All donations are processed and managed by the emerging 501(c)3 non-profit Decomprose which seeks to heal people through making art more accessible.

Camp programming details!

Here are the activities we are working hard to be able to provide at Good Medicine Camp:

  • Learning from incredible Native role models like healthcare workers, environmental scientists, herbal medicine experts, authors, and more!

  • Learn about plants native to Potawatomi land through a foraging and herbal medicine class.

  • Taking a day trip to Loyola Stritch School of Medicine to learn about and envision yourself in healthcare.

  • Beadwork and leather crafting. Nature-based crafts. Meditation and reflection moments.

Please email elise@elisemaren.com if you are interested in speaking at camp or being a camp counselor. We are hoping to fundraise enough to compensate both counselors and speakers for their time.

Our origin story!

Elise, a Sámi first year student at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine from Mni Sota Makoce, felt homesick when she disovered two things:

1. She was the only Indigenous student on campus, which was especially disappointing as she is not Native to Turtle Island.

2. The closest Scandinavian grocer was IKEA, and they don’t even carry cloudberry.

Elise felt determined to increase representation in medicine. This proved to be especially true after discovering that most, if not all, the healthcare workers she collaborated with at Indian Health Service sites were not Native themselves.

We believe that environmental science is an extension of healthcare as pollution and climate change continue to increase in relevance as social determinants of health. Thus, GM Camp was born to inspire children to be “good medicine” to people and planet by presenting them with positive Indigenous role models in STEAM.