Posted by ImproveCareNow™ on July 22, 2025
Before joining ImproveCareNow in June 2025, Becky Johnson Rescola served as Senior Vice President of Education and Community Engagement at the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation. Throughout her 15-year tenure with the Foundation, she has led community-based patient and professional education, patient/caregiver support groups, healthcare professional engagement, community-based equity programs, and Camp Oasis. She has worked with many institutions, clinical professionals, and families across the pediatric IBD community throughout her career.
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“Do one thing every day that scares you” – Eleanor Roosevelt
I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to spend the last 15 years of my career with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. I have worked in health and human services – in both public and nonprofit settings – my entire career. But I have learned there is something uniquely special about the IBD community.
One of the Foundation’s longest running and most impactful programs is Camp Oasis. The camp provides an overnight, weeklong camp experience exclusively for children and teens with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. When I interviewed for the position, my future boss asked, “how do you feel about running a camp?” I honestly had no idea! I quickly learned that being responsible for a camp – and knowing families are counting on you to keep their children safe – is a bit scary.
It's equally scary for kids and families. I marveled at the brave parents who were willing to disconnect for a week and entrust their kids to our care. I couldn’t believe the resiliency of our campers – some as young as 7 – showing up to camp for the first time and bravely stepping into the unknown. The program is designed to encourage campers to try new things and throughout the week, I witnessed extraordinary transformation of kids and teens who were so willing to do that one scary thing each day.
While many camp activities require quite a bit of courage – high ropes, zip lines, rock walls – I think perhaps sometimes the scariest leap was being able to open up to other kids and to the adult volunteers at camp. Kids learned to talk about IBD, to share vulnerable experiences, and to learn from one another. Sometimes, you have to be brave to be part of a community, especially one that is new to you.
A highlight of Camp Oasis is the end of week talent show. Some campers arrive prepared to showcase a particular talent or skill. Others come up with an idea during the camp week. All step out of their comfort zones to walk onstage and share a special part of themselves with the community.
One year, a younger camper signed up to sing. She chose her song, practiced all week, and then, the night of the talent show, started her song on stage when suddenly, she forgot the words. She froze. She looked terrified and incredibly uncertain about what to do. In many audiences in our lives, this would be cause for extreme embarrassment. People might call us out for our failures, or our presumed lack of preparation, or our eagerness to try something new when we weren’t quite ready. But Camp Oasis is a special community and without a pause, the audience started to sing. They knew the words. They knew the music. And they refused to let another camper struggle – instead, the community joined in unison and helped her finish strong.
In that moment, Camp Oasis changed her life in the same way it changed mine. It was a privilege to oversee this very special program and it was very, very scary to leave it behind. However, I see that same special community at ImproveCareNow. It is a community that encourages others to take risks, try something new – and when we need a little boost, others are there to join the chorus. I’m grateful to stay connected to many of the same exceptional children, teens, young adults, and families – and many of the healthcare professionals who volunteered at camp – through a network that also changes lives every single day. This type of special community is rare.
Before taking this rather scary leap to a new role, I received a bracelet with Morse Code for “BRAVE.” It reminds me to do the scary thing and to feel confident knowing there’s a community to support me as I step onto the proverbial stage. I am so very grateful to serve in this role with you. I encourage us all to be brave and do the scary thing, because we can do it together. I look forward to our continued work together, and thanks for singing along with me.