About Us

Since 1986, Camp Carefree has provided a FREE, one week camping experience for kids with chronic illnesses. Our program also includes camps for well siblings of ill children, and a week for children with a sick parent.

The campground has accommodations for 120 campers, counselors and medical personnel, and offers the recreational and craft activities of a traditional camping program. The main difference involves the populations served and the residence of medical volunteers from UNC Hospitals, Moses Cone Health System, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and other area health facilities. These teams oversee the proper administration of medications and treatments that many of our campers require, and assures the close monitoring of their physical condition. 

Many children with serious health problems live a protected life and spend a good deal of their young lives in hospitals and doctor's offices. Camp Carefree provides them with needed freedom to play, learn and have fun with others who encounter similar difficulties. The psychological, recreational and physical benefits of camping with their peers can help make their personal battle easier to bear. Sharing their feelings with others who really know what it's like to live with someone with a chronic health problem or disability helps these children know they are not alone in their plight. OUR EMPHASIS, HOWEVER, IS ON WELLNESS AND FUN!

Since the financial burden for families who have someone with ongoing health problems is often heavy, Camp Carefree's policy is to provide each camper this experience at no charge to their families.

Camp Carefree's construction has been a labor of love by volunteers from a broad area of the community. Likewise, our summer program could never succeed without the love and devotion of our volunteer counselors and medical staff. Donations of money, furnishings, and building materials have been received from many areas of the state allowing us to be debt free, with all existing facilities completed and paid for. Individuals, civic groups, churches, businesses and foundations have all had a part in contributing to our remarkable success.

With our major construction complete and paid for, we are now able to concentrate our time and income on expanding and improving our program. As with all facilities, there will always be repairs, additions and replacements to make, and as our program expands our costs rise. With the great support we have had from the community thus far, we feel confident we will continue to have friends to keep us solvent.

Camp Carefree is located in Stokesdale, NC, just 17 miles north of the Piedmont Triad Airport, making it a quick destination from Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem or anywhere else in the region.

We are a 401(c)(3) non-profit organization with no full-time staff; we are all volunteers! Your donation and the support of our sponsors make our mission possible.

Founders

Camp Carefree was founded in 1986 by Anne & Gib Jones, who lived for more than 30 years adjacent to the farmland that was developed into the camp. Anne served as Executive Director until her retirement in 2015. Anne and Gib are no longer with us, but they worked hard to make sure that Camp would outlast us all. In 2011 and 2013, Anne gifted the property previously leased by the camp, directly to the Camp Carefree non-profit.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

  • Diane Samelak, R.N. MSN, Chair

  • Annette Joyce, Vice-Chair

  • Carol Wright, Secretary

  • Rhonda Rodenbough, Treasurer


  • Brad Bailey

  • John Carter

  • Adam Green, PhD

  • Brenda Nielsen, R.N., M.S.N.

  • Art Riddle

  • Dean Schaeffer

  • Brooke Wilson

  • Stephanie Wolfe, M.D.

Honorary Board Member: Steve Clarke

L - R:: Program Director Mary Kate Young, Executive Director Diane Samelak, and Program Directors Ryan Joyce & Tony McCallum