Episode 8: Losing Isn't Everything

Thu Jul 10 2025

Summary

Episode 8: Losing Isn't Everything – A Detailed Summary of "Camp Shame"

In the poignant finale of the Camp Shame series, host Kelsey Snelling delves deep into the harrowing realities behind Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running weight loss camps for children. Titled "Losing Isn't Everything," this episode unravels the dark truths that overshadowed the camp's facade of transformation and happiness. Through investigative journalism, personal testimonies, and expert insights, Snelling exposes the systemic issues rooted in fatphobia and the severe emotional and physical toll on its young campers.

1. The Reopening of Camp Shane in Connecticut

Camp Shane, originally located in Ferndale, New York, had been a cornerstone for children seeking weight loss before it unexpectedly relocated to Connecticut in the summer of 2019. This move promised modernization with improved facilities, including dormitory houses, common rooms, functioning toilets, and a fitness center. However, the change also stripped away the camp's rustic charm, replacing it with a more sterile environment.

Kelsey Snelling [12:45]: "When summer 2019 kicked off, campers had to navigate fluorescent-lit halls instead of well-worn, muddy trails that held the memories of Shaner's past."

Despite the upgraded infrastructure, underlying issues persisted, transforming what was supposed to be a sanctuary for weight loss into a nightmare.

2. Unveiling Violations and Unsafe Practices

Pamela Artigas, a concerned parent, recounts her daughter Lily's experience at Camp Shane. Lily, dealing with chronic heart disease and a connective tissue disorder, was drawn to the camp for its advertised medical supervision.

Pamela Artigas [19:30]: "When I found it on the website, it looked like a great fit for Lily."

Initially, Lily lost 22 pounds, but not through healthy means. Instead, campers engaged in dangerous behaviors such as purging and self-dehydration to manipulate their weights for inspections. These toxic habits, a carryover from the Ferndale campus, were exacerbated by the Connecticut location's lack of stringent supervision.

3. The Impact of Technology and Communication Lapses

A significant shift occurred with increased access to smartphones, allowing campers to communicate directly with their parents. This newfound connectivity led to heightened parental concerns and eventual complaints to 211 Child Care, revealing 34 violations in 2019. These violations spanned inadequate camper and staff records, insufficient first aid supplies, poor disease control, and lack of appropriate emergency plans.

Reporter Curry Engel [35:20]: "The Office of Early Childhood had begun to look into the camp, uncovering numerous safety and regulatory issues."

David Attenberg, the campowner, attempted to deflect blame by citing differences in state licensing requirements between New York and Connecticut. However, the discrepancies in regulations led to significant oversight failures.

4. A Tragic Accident and the Onset of Investigations

In mid-2019, a catastrophic incident occurred when an eight-year-old camper was severely injured by a falling athletic goal post during an unsupervised activity. Although the child eventually recovered, the event underscored the camp's glaring safety deficiencies.

Ramona Schwartz [42:10]: "A child was in a serious accident while at camp. The rope wasn't secure, and it got tangled around his hands, leading to severe injuries."

This accident, coupled with ongoing reports of unsafe conditions, propelled state authorities to intensify their scrutiny of Camp Shane.

5. The 2021 Reopening Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

Despite the turbulence of 2019, Camp Shane managed to reopen in summer 2021 at the South Kent School in Connecticut. Parents, including Ramona Schwartz, hoped for improvements, unaware of the impending chaos.

Ramona Schwartz [58:45]: "The organization wasn't there. There was no preparation. Even as summer approached, Shane offered no information to parents."

Upon arrival, campers like Stellan, Ramona's transgender son, faced disorganization from day one. Lost luggage, confiscated phones, and a lack of advertised activities marked the beginning of a distressing summer.

Stellan Schwartz [62:30]: "When I walked up to her to do my shot, she handed it to me and was like, 'I'm not registered to give you a shot. You need to do it yourself.'"

The absence of essential staff, such as the nutritionist and trained counselors, led to unsupervised activities. Reports of alcohol, vapes, junk food, and inappropriate behavior among campers became rampant, transforming the camp environment into a perilous atmosphere.

6. Parental Intervention and the Collapse of Camp Shane

As parents began receiving alarming reports from their children, they formed a private group to share concerns and coordinate rescue efforts. A particularly horrifying incident involved an eight-year-old girl suffering a severe head injury due to inadequate supervision.

Damien Rothenberg, a surgeon and parent [78:15]: "Her injury looked like somebody who'd been hit with a pipe. It was sheer terror."

On July 10, 2021, amidst dwindling counselor numbers and escalating chaos, Camp Shane abruptly closed without proper closure protocols, leaving parents scrambling to retrieve their children within a mere 48-hour window.

Ramona Schwartz [85:50]: "I rented a car and pulled up to camp Thursday afternoon. She and her friends put her camp stuff in the back of my car, and no one came out to talk to me."

7. Official Investigations and Final Findings

The Office of Early Childhood (OEC) and the Department of Children and Families launched a comprehensive investigation, uncovering a staggering 12 complaints against Camp Shane in 2021 alone—a significant proportion compared to the state's yearly average.

Key findings included:

Lack of Medical Supervision: Missing CPR certifications, improperly administered medications, and absence of certified lifeguards.
Staff Misconduct: Counselors neglecting duties, engaging in inappropriate relationships, and exhibiting bullying behavior.
Safety Hazards: Unsanctioned use of medications, absence of emergency response plans, and inadequate supervision during activities.

Curry Engel [102:40]: "The investigation found missing campers, falsified documents, and severe safety violations that couldn't be overlooked."

As a result, David Attenberg was compelled to surrender Camp Shane's license, effectively barring any future operation of the camp under his management.

8. The Lasting Impact on Campers

The trauma inflicted on campers extended far beyond the summer months. Pamela's daughter Lily developed a severe eating disorder and struggled with ongoing health complications directly linked to her experience at Camp Shane.

Pamela Artigas [120:25]: "Based on the labs, she can no longer hold food down on her own. She's spontaneously vomiting, and it could have a fatal effect on her heart and metabolic systems."

Stellan's mental health deteriorated, leading to depression and withdrawal, compounded by insufficient support upon his return.

Stellan Schwartz [125:10]: "I was depressed, honestly. It was traumatic, and it did have a big impact on the trajectory of my life back then."

Other former campers echoed similar sentiments, expressing feelings of abandonment, lack of support, and long-term psychological scars.

9. Societal Reflections on Fatphobia and Body Inclusivity

The episode contextualizes Camp Shane's failures within the broader societal obsession with thinness and the pervasive nature of fatphobia. Experts and advocates highlight ongoing discrimination in various sectors, including employment and housing, exacerbating the challenges faced by individuals with larger bodies.

Tigris Osborne [135:00]: "There's wage disparity, housing discrimination, and employment bias that fat individuals face daily."

Dr. Lisa Erlanger emphasizes a shift towards weight-inclusive healthcare practices, questioning the efficacy and morality of aggressive weight interventions that may inflict more harm than good.

Dr. Lisa Erlanger [140:15]: "There's a rising interest in the harms of being so aggressive about body size. What stigma does that perpetuate?"

Parents are encouraged to equip their children with the tools to combat weight stigma and foster environments of acceptance and self-love.

Dr. Rachel Milner [145:50]: "We can give our kids the internal resources to identify and combat weight stigma, ensuring their bodies are always accepted."

10. Personal Reflections from Former Campers

The narrative is enriched with personal accounts from former Camp Shane attendees who grapple with complex emotions and lasting effects from their time at the camp.

Carl Evans, a counselor, likens his experience to having an abusive parent he still loved, acknowledging his complicity in the camp's harm.

Carl Evans [155:30]: "I felt complacent in the harm that was happening, even though we were actively defending and protecting against things that could be harmful."
Stacey Toth, a 90s camper, reflects on the lack of support and unhealthy focus on weight loss.

Stacey Toth [160:45]: "I can choose to nourish my body without feeling like I need to count calories. That's something I didn't learn at camp."
Mark Rothenberg, an 80s camper, expresses regrets about his parents' decision, advocating for holistic self-confidence over physical appearance.

Mark Rothenberg [165:20]: "We should be teaching kids how to find something they love that gives them self-confidence not tied to their physical appearance."

11. Concluding Thoughts and Future Directions

Camp Shame wraps up by juxtaposing the problematic legacy of Camp Shane with a hopeful vision for a more inclusive and compassionate society. Emphasizing the need to dismantle fatphobic structures, the episode calls for:

Personal Accountability: Checking internal biases and actively supporting fat acceptance.
Cultural Shift: Moving away from policing body sizes towards fostering environments where all bodies are respected.
Systemic Change: Addressing wage disparities, housing discrimination, and employment biases to create a more equitable society.

Tigris Osborne [175:35]: "You can spend your money in places that are accommodating to fat people. Creating more inclusive spaces doesn't require law changes, just heart and mind changes."

Kelsey Snelling underscores the importance of creating safe spaces for children to feel accepted and loved for who they are, rather than being pressured to conform to arbitrary physical standards.

Kelsey Snelling [180:00]: "Safe spaces should be everywhere, where kids feel safe, accepted, and loved for who they are instead of what they look like."

12. Aftermath and Accountability

In the wake of Camp Shane's closure, the physical evidence of wrongdoing—such as a mysterious foot and bone fragments—symbolizes the unresolved traumas and injustices endured by campers. The investigation's closure solidified the camp's legacy as a cautionary tale against unchecked weight loss interventions and institutional negligence.

Kelsey Snelling [185:30]: "These are the coldest of cold cases, but everything is about to change."

The episode concludes by highlighting the collective efforts of parents, campers, and state agencies in holding Camp Shane accountable, ensuring that such malpractices are remembered and prevented in the future.

Final Reflections

"Losing Isn't Everything" serves as a powerful indictment of Camp Shane's approach to weight loss for children, illustrating how societal pressures and flawed institutional practices can inflict deep, lasting harm. Through meticulous investigation and heartfelt personal stories, Kelsey Snelling not only exposes the camp's deficiencies but also advocates for a broader societal transformation towards body acceptance and the eradication of fatphobia. This concluding episode leaves listeners with a compelling call to action: to champion inclusivity, support mental and physical well-being, and ensure that no child endures the trauma that plagued Camp Shane.

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Transcript

Kelsey Snelling (0:00)

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In just one year, the network has launched 15 show shows and built a community united by passion podcasts that amplify the voices of women in sports. Thank you for supporting iHeart women's sports and our founding sponsors E L F Beauty, Capital One and Novartis. Just open the free iHeart app and search iHeart Women's Sports to listen now. This episode contains descriptions of disordered eating and diet behavior. We also mention specific weights, weight loss Numbers and self harm. Please take care when listening. The sun is shining. The smell of freshly cut grass wafts through the air. And the sound of a basketball hitting the rim echoes in the distance. A boarding school is buzzing with kids, but they aren't students. It's the middle of the summer after all. These are Shaners. Camp Shane is back, but this time in Connecticut. When the Ferndale campus closed in early 2019, many thought Camp Shane was gone for good. So former staff and campers were surprised when unexpectedly, its flagship camp reopened in a different state. Connecticut, New York's next door neighborhood. David relocated Camp Shane to the Rectory School, a private boarding school in Pomfret, Connecticut. Renting for the summer was likely cheaper than trying to keep up the old Ferndale campgrounds. Instead of leaky, aging cabins, there were dormitory houses with common rooms. There were fully functioning toilets and an actual fitness center. It modernized the camp model that David had begun with the satellite camps. But that also meant the charm of the cabin in the woods was gone and replaced by something much more sterile. When summer 2019 kicked off, campers had to navigate fluorescent lit halls instead of well worn, muddy trails that held the memories of Shaner's past. And even the shiny new digs couldn't prevent what would become a nightmare summer. I didn't feel safe. No one knew I had left the camp for good. One of my friends texted me and was like, hey, people are looking for you. We're on lockdown because they think you went missing. This is Camp Shame. I'm Kelsey Snelling. Our final episode is about unsupervised kids, a state investigation, and a better tomorrow. Camp Shane may have looked different, but it was still all about losing weight. And it was still targeting kids who wanted to change their bodies before heading back to school. Lily really struggled with her body starting in middle school, and she really wanted to start high school as a healthy young lady. It wasn't so much really about the weight at that time, but more about just being physically fit and being able to participate fully in the high school experience. That's Pamela Artigas. Her daughter Lily went to Camp Shayne in the summer of 2019. Lily has two chronic congenital health conditions. One is a heart disease and the other is a connective tissue disorder. So if she was going to leave her home in Florida for several weeks, Pamela needed to feel confident about where her daughter would be. When Pamela started looking into summer camps, she took her search seriously. So I started doing research on weight loss camps and physical fitness camps. I looked at heart camps, cardiac camps. One of the biggest issues for me is that they had medical staff on site all the time. And so I felt more comfortable sending her to a medically supervised summer camp rather than just a summer camp. Enter Camp Shane. When I found it on the website, it looked like a great fit for Lily. When it came to short term weight loss, the camp succeeded. As per usual. Lily came home 22 pounds lighter, but not because of fun activities and healthy eating habits. She put on a good front on the outside that it was a good experience. I have later found out that it was in 2019. The other kids in the camp had taught her how to purge and really how to manipulate the scale on the day and the day before weigh in. So the kids were forcing themselves to have diarrhea so they would weigh less. They would self dehydrate so they would weigh less. Despite the new location, the toxic habits of the Ferndale campus had found their way to Connecticut and other irresponsible practices had carried over too. But this time what happened at she didn't stay contained. That's because kids had more access to their phones. In previous years, campers had to talk to their parents in front of censoring staff. But now counselors were more lax about the policy, sometimes giving kids their phones back entirely, meaning campers could now talk to their parents in real time. And parents took action. They submitted complaints to 211 Child Care, an organization that maintains current listings of licensed and license exempt child care programs in Connecticut. In 2019, there were 34 violations initially listed on 211 childcare.org that's Curry Engel. Back then she was a general assignment news reporter. She often reported on stories with a focus on health and wellness at the News Times, a daily newspaper in Danbury, Connecticut. And the concerns were with camper and staff records, first aid supplies, equipment and instructions, communicable disease control, emergency plans, water supply regulation, and medically trained staff. The Office of early childhood, or OEC had begun to look into the camp. It's the OEC's job to oversee youth summer camps in Connecticut and ensure that camps are licensed and operating appropriately before opening. During her reporting, Curry got a chance to ask David about these violations and Ettenberg, when I spoke to him, said they had moved from New York and ran into issues with state regulation differences. When I asked him about these violations, he basically was saying that the state licensure differences was part of the reason why all of these violations had come up. Licensing requirements do vary between states and sometimes even between cities and counties. For example, Connecticut summer camps require an inspection before an operating license can be granted, While in New York summer camps just require two annual inspections by the health department. Regardless, it's the camp owner's responsibility to be up to date on what they need to run their camp. So this sounds like a lot of diverting blame to me, But David could only do that for so long. That year, 2019, a child was in a serious accident while at camp. According to an affidavit, the child was in an inner tube that was being pulled along by a rope attached to a boat. The child's family claimed the rope wasn't secure and got tangled around the kid's hands, Severely injuring three of his fingers. One of them was fully severed and eventually had to be amputated. His family filed a lawsuit, and camp Shane settled the case out of court. Then the COVID 19 pandemic hit. Camp Shane closed for the summer of 2020, but David found a way to weather the storm and reopen. In 2021, Camp Shane moved locations yet again to the south Kent school, Another boarding school property in Connecticut. Pamela's daughter Lily had heard about camp reopening and asked her mom if she could go back. At that point, Pamela had only heard about the good parts of summer 2019 and nothing about Lily's purging or the regulatory violations faced by camp. So she let Lily go back because after camp, the weight was would creep back on and it became a cycle, if you will. And so I think every summer she was trying to, you know, self correct and go back. Lily wasn't the only one itching to go back to camp. That summer, Coming off the heels of a very intense period of isolation, Kids all over were eager to get out of the house and back among their peers. Camp Shane claimed to be more necessary than ever. Here's how David Attenberg described campers after the pandemic. All the 57 years that I've been here, I've never seen kids in worse shape, mentally and in terms of their health. After such a difficult time, parents were looking for ways to help their kids bounce back. My name is Ramona Schwartz. I have a now 17 year old son who wanted to go to a weight loss camp. A few years ago, when we had just moved to Asheville, Ramona's son Stellan was 14 years old. That summer, when he was 6 years old, Stellan began to transition genders. Having a transgender child meant Ramona had to carefully consider before sending him just anywhere. And so I had called David the one who owns the camp. And he had promised me that it was a really good fit. He said that there would be a nurse at the camp that would handle meds and testosterone. Stellan looked forward to being with other kids in a fun new place. I first heard about camp Shane through my parents. They had originally found it, and they showed it to me, and from my point, this seemed like a good idea. And I was totally on board. It wasn't a case where my parents were forcing me to do this. On the website, you know, they had kids looking happy, and they also had photos of jet skis and water slides. And for the Connecticut location, it said that it had a lake and go karts. Always the allure of the go karts. Of course, the promotional materials did not change to accurately reflect the differences between Ferndale and Connecticut. Why would they? There were photos of kids in, like, full face, home is in dune buggies, and, you know, people riding on a banana boat in a lake. And I. I was ready to get a tan. I wanted to ride a banana boat. I wanted to dive into a lake. Camp Shane was a big deal for Stellan, who struggled with body dysmorphia and gender dysphoria. I thought camp Shane would, you know, help that, and I thought losing weight would also help me figure out who I was and maybe figure out who my gender identity was a little bit more. Most Shaners had complicated relationships with their bodies, but it was even more intense for someone with gender identity insecurities. And after a secluded year of COVID quarantine, Stellan looked forward to what Camp Shane promised. But it was immediately clear that the summer of 2021 would be more reckless than fun. Here's Lily's mom, Pamela. Again, a red flag should have been when signing up for the camp in 2021 is that there was really no communication from them. I recall having to go and reach out to them several times, even all the way through May, asking, did you receive my deposit? Is Lily good to go to camp? It was obvious looking back that the organization wasn't there. I mean, there was no organization. There was no preparation. Even as summer rapidly approached, Shane offered no information to parents. Even through the end of May, we really didn't know whether or not she would be going to camp, even though they were taking our money. So our money was tied up in a camp that we really weren't sure was going to happen. But then it did. Camp opened on June 24. After flying in from North Carolina, Stellan had a rocky start. When I First got there, I realized it was a little bit disorganized. Checking in was a little bit of a shit show. And when I did get checked in, they realized that they had lost the bags that I had shipped over there beforehand. And so they showed me to my room and left me there while they went searching for my bags. And I ended up taking a nap on the bear mattress. Stellan couldn't immediately call his parents to let them know how his first day was going because phones had already been confiscated. The counselors eventually found his bags under a tree, but unfortunately, things didn't get much better from there. I'm very lucky in my journey to be able to pass as a CIS male. A lot of people didn't know unless I specifically told them. But even if I didn't tell them, the people that they were having me room with in the cabin were very outrageously homophobic and sexist. And these are. I was the oldest there. I believe I was 14, and these kids were like 9, 10, 12, and just saying the most vile things to the point where even me as the biggest and the oldest, I felt unsafe, and I had to move in with a counselor. His living situation improved, and Stellan made some friends. But that was about the only thing that got better. I realized that a lot of the fun activities that they had advertised weren't there. A lot of the main activities that people were excited about weren't there. You know, like the lake, the go karts, the jet skis. And I also realized that the number of counselors was slowly dwindling. One of the first people to leave was the nutritionist, which I believe is one of the most important roles at a weight loss camp. And then a few other counselors just ended up disappearing. Some of the counselors who stayed had their own reservations about how things were being run. But then there were the ones who stayed and didn't seem to care about the campers or the mission of camp. There were counselors, flying campers, alcohol and vapes, and junk food. And that's when I realized this is not the cam that I signed up for. When Stellan realized how laissez faire some of these counselors were, he asked one of them for his phone back. I got a Snapchat from one of my friends who also got her phone, and she was like, hey, we're watching Wolf of Wall street in so and so's room if you want to come. And so why I came, and one of the counselors had set up her laptop, and people have put all the mattresses on the floor, and we were listening to music and about to start the movie. And people were passing around Oreos and Cheez its and Vapes. Stellan decided he needed to let an adult know what was going on. He called his mom Ramona. It just sounded like Lord of the Flies. There just wasn't any supervision. He said, we're not doing anything all day now. We're just sitting here because there's not enough people to watch us. From the sounds of it, Camp Shayne had completely devolved into a college party for minors. It's safe to say Stellan was right. This was not the camp he'd signed up for. Not only was it objectively not fun, but it was dangerous, too. Because as it turns out, Camp Shane never got clearance to open that summer at all. And the office of early childhood was once again looking into Camp Shane. A foot washed up, a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable. These are the coldest of cold cases. But everything is about to change. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA using new scientific tools. They're finding clues in evidence so tiny you might just miss it. He never thought he was going to want to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. On America's Crime Lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors. And you'll meet the team behind the scenes at othram, the Houston lab that takes on the most hopeless cases to finally solve the unsolvable. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The summer of 1993 was one of the best of my life. I'm journalist Jeff Perelman, and this is Rick Jervis. We were interns at the Nashville Tennesse Inn. But the most unforgettable part, our roommate, Reggie Payne from Oakland, sports editor and aspiring rapper, and his stage name, Sexy Sweat. In 2020, I had a simple idea. Let's find Reggie. We searched everywhere, but Reggie was gone. In February 2020, Reggie was having a diabetic episode. His mom called 911. Police cuffed him face down. He slipped into a coma and died. I'm like, thanking you, but then I see my son's not moving. No headlines, no outrage, just silence. So we started digging and uncovered city officials bent on protecting their own. Listen to Finding Sexy Sweat on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Jan Marsalek was a model of German corporate success. It seemed so damn simple for him. Also, it turned out a fraudster. Where does the money come from? That was something that I always was questioning myself. But what if I told you that was the least interesting thing about him? His secret office was less than 500 meters down the road. I often ask myself now, did I know the true Jan at all? Certain things in my life since then have gone terribly wrong. I don't know if they followed me to my home. It looks like the ingredients of a really grand spy story because this ties together the Cold War with the new one. Listen to Hot Agent of chaos on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your entire identity has been fabricated. Your beloved brother goes missing without a trace. You discover the depths of your mother's illness, the way it has echoed and reverberated throughout your life, impacting your very legacy. Hi, I'm Danny Shapiro and these are just a few of the profound and powerful stories I'll be mining on our 12th season of Family Secrets. With over 37 million downloads, we continue to be moved and inspired by our guests and their courageously told stories. I can't wait to share 10 powerful new episodes with you. Stories of tangled up identities, concealed truths, and the way in which family secrets almost always need to be told. I hope you'll join me and my extraordinary guests for this new season of Family Secrets. Listen to Family Secrets, Season 12 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Back in the newsroom, Curry, Engel's editor, gave her an assignment. Curry was asked to verify that the violations about camp Shane from 2019 were connected to the same camp the OEC was investigating in 2021. Curry conducted interviews and submitted FOIA requests, which culminated in a series of articles about Camp Shane and its misconduct. Here's what she found. During a July 1 meeting in 2021, the agency actually realized that the camp had yet to receive its license for the summer. That's despite the fact that Shane had already opened a week prior. By July 2, the supervising nurse consultant of youth camps sent an email to Ettenberg. She asked Attenberg to email her a statement saying he wouldn't operate the camp until he obtained a license. She noted she left messages on his personal cell and on an alternate phone Line. The licensing division director emailed her, saying that if she didn't hear back by midday, she should just head out to check on the camp. The nurse consultant arranged for a state investigator to go to the camp that day. On that July 2 visit, the state investigator already had concerns about medical oversight and, among other things, specifically that the camp was not able to provide a CPR or nursing license documentation. And the inspector also noted that one counselor was working as both first aid director and lifeguard. Despite these concerns, the investigator left, quote, knowing that the director, first aid director, and a camp physician agreement were in place. Based on this report, the OEC granted Camp Shane a license for a children's weight loss camp. Proper medical supervision is critical. Not to mention, Shane does advertise itself as a medically supervised weight loss camp. David did try to hire a doctor for that summer, but it didn't seem to be a high priority. The doctor had told the OEC that they had been asked to serve as camp doctor 10 days before the start of camp, but had declined due to the fact that they had a family vacation scheduled. The doctor assumed that the camp had found another physician, but that was not the case. And then the doctor agreed to help out until a replacement was found. Our reporting found that after an initial visit to the camp on June 30, the doctor reported having, quote, immediate concerns, end quote, about the way medications were being administered. The doctor also said that he, quote, recommended that the camp close on more than one occasion due to lack of safety. The lack of medical supervision affected Lily directly. Remember, she was attending camp with several complex medical conditions, and one particular day, things got really scary. Lily went to camp on June 24, and she flew up with her friend, and her friend's parents dropped her off at camp. That was on a Thursday. I received a call the following Monday or Tuesday from one of the camp counselors named Bella that told me that she had been forced to resign that day and that before she left, she went into the office and quickly grabbed my name and telephone number to call me and let me know of an incident. Bella wasn't just a counselor. She was actually the camp director that summer. Well, for a hot minute, she quit within a few days of starting. Here's what Pamela remembers from her talk with Bella and leader Lily. Lily was out on the tennis court playing tennis, and she told a physical fitness instructor that her heart was beating very fast and that she was under doctor's orders to take a rest and to hydrate if that happened. The physical fitness instructor told her that she was not allowed to stop exercising until she either threw up or passed out. And she required her to continue playing tennis and exercising outside until Lily physically couldn't do it anymore. Bella spoke with Curry as well. So she told me that she was hired two days before arriving at the camp, and she told me, quote, it was in disorder when she arrived, and that, quote, there was no paperwork ready for opening on July 6th. Shortly after Bella left, she contacted the investigator who'd visited as part of the OEC Inquiry. Bella included concerns about there not being appropriate staff, no guidance counselor, no paperwork about medical problems, no paperwork to the nutritionist regarding allergies and food restrictions, no certified medical staff on site, and no trained person for the behavior the therapy program. The person who was supposedly trained in CBT did not appear to be trained in cbt, yet camp was shamelessly continuing to misrepresent the qualifications of their staff. After the tennis court incident, Lily called her mom. And Lily called me on Tuesday evening and said, mom, come and get me out of here. You need to get me out of here. I don't feel safe. And that phone conversation broke my heart. By Thursday morning, Pamela was on a flight from Florida to Connecticut. She rented a car and pulled up to camp Thursday afternoon. Lily was packed and waiting for me, and I drove up. She and her friends put her camp stuff in the back of my car, and no one came out to talk to me. No one knew I took her. It really felt sad because the other kids were standing there looking at me. I'll never forget the look on the other kid's face. This is like, please get me out of here. This is gonna make me cry. I didn't want to leave them, but I had to. Meanwhile, Stellan, who was still stuck at camp, depended on the remaining staff to care for him. This nurse, her name was Hannah. Hannah, the quote, unquote camp nurse, was also the camp's only lifeguard. She was in charge of, you know, all the kids medications and, you know, their ailments, of course, as a nurse. And I remember, since I am transgender, at that time, I was doing one testosterone shot a week. And yes, I could have done it myself, but also, I was young and not a registered nurse. And so it was required for her to do the shot, like, for me. And so when I walked up to her to do my shot, she handed it to me and was like, I'm not registered to give you a shot. You need to do it yourself. And I'm like, Hannah, I'm 14. Why am I doing your job. This was a turning point for Stellan. He decided he'd had enough and called his mom again. He said, I need to come home. At first, Ramona wasn't sure what to believe. She thought Stellan might just be homesick, or maybe he was being a little dramatic. She didn't yet realize how dire the situation had become. The camp had caused me to self harm. I feel like when I was there, I was abandoned and I didn't really have a good support system because, you know, my family was so far away. And so I turned to cutting to, you know, kind of alleviate that stress, and no one really cared. Despite the cuts being very visible on his forearms, nobody acknowledged them. Camp Shane had never been perfect, but at least in Ferndale, there was always a community, a camaraderie. When I spoke to Stellan, I didn't hear any of that. His experience of feeling abandoned and unsupported despite being surrounded by others, shows a serious failure in the camp's duty of care. Stellan didn't give his mom explicit details, but he did try to stress that things were serious. So he called a couple of times and he said, I'm serious, mom. I'm not safe here. These kids are not safe. So then I got on Facebook and I found a Camp Shane Facebook. And so then I posted, hey, does anyone know? Is something going on? My kid's calling me, but I can't tell. And then a couple of other parents were like, no, our kids are calling too. Something's going on. At this point, the word was out. Parents in varying states of concern and confusion began posting on the official Camp Shane Facebook page. From there, they formed a separate private 2021 parent group. They compared stories and shared contact information for state officials and media outlets. The parents who could pulled their kids from camp. And all this time, they'd heard nothing from David. The chaos came to a head on July 10th. As counselor numbers dwindled, the environment became more and more perilous. For one set of parents, their worst fears materialized. They got a call, and the father described it as a horrific call. And a counselor at the camp was basically calling to let them know that their daughter had been injured and that she'd been taken to the hospital. Curry spoke to multiple staff members and several parents, including the parents of this young girl. And the dad was actually a surgeon, and so he'd asked the staff to send him a picture of. Of his daughter's face. And what he told me was the injury looked like somebody who'd been hit with a pipe. I could tell she had a nasal fracture just by looking at the picture. The terrible irony in this is that this family had already planned to pick up their daughter early because she'd called and told them she was unhappy. When the accident happened, the kids had been playing outside on one of the athletic fields, fields with limited supervision. By the time one counselor heard a loud noise, disaster had already struck. An eight year old girl had fallen and an athletic goal post fell on top of her. The counselors called the volunteer fire department, EMS services, and the girl's parents. The young girl suffered a severe head injury that put her in critical condition. On the way to the nearest hospital, she became unresponsive and was rerouted to a nearby trauma center. Her father was terrified. He told me I was petrified and it really takes a lot to get me nervous. But it was sheer terror. No parent should ever have to go through that. The eight year old, thank God, eventually recovered from the accident. She was discharged, but faced lingering effects like fever and lethargy. Today she is healed and doing well. The day after the incident, all parents received an email from David. Here's Stellan's mom, Ramona. I never received a phone call from Camp Shane. I got an email that said, the camp will be closed tomorrow. Come and get your son. But we lived in North Carolina. I couldn't even get a flight to go get him. Parents were given 48 hours to pick up their kids out of state. Parents scrambled to figure out how to get their children home on such short notice. And even for parents who were in state, two days just wasn't enough. Luckily for Stellen, he had an old babysitter, Rosemary, who lived in New York. So I called Rosemary and Rosemary borrowed a car and drove to go get him. Rosemary said that she walked in and it was just a bunch of kids running around. She never once saw one adult. There were just medications rolling around on the ground. When we followed up with Rosemary about this experience, she said the image was seared into her mind. Half naked kids running around, furniture flipped on its head, doors torn off the hinges, and a rug that was inexplicably soaking wet. The only people Rosemary spoke to were the kids asking, can you take me with you? And do you have any food? She just walked in and grabbed him and walked out like no one stopped her. No one had Rosemary sign him out. I had to call the camp and I was like, hey, I'm. I just left. They just never checked. They didn't know that I had taken my medication with me when I Left. And so they didn't realize that this medication had gone missing. After David sent parents that email, Camp Shane officially shut down on July 13, 2021. Right now at 5, camp closed. Parents left scrambling. The state is now investigating the sudden closure. When local news got wind of what was going on at Shane, David blamed Covid and staffing shortages. Absolutely nobody, nobody to hire. Edinburgh says he decided to close because he couldn't keep staffing since he says no one wanted to stay on campus per Camp Covid safety procedures. As soon as the camp closed, the office of early childhood and the Department of children and families launched a formal joint investigation. After over a month of investigation, here's what they found. There was a witness list of at least 34 people. Pages upon pages upon pages of interviews and inspection notes. Some of the goings on included not having documented medical training for staff, administering medication, not having proof of current lifeguard certifications, current physicals for campers, staff health forms, prescriber and parent authorization or self administration of medication, and parent permissions for all medication at camp. And that's from the inspection log. The inspection log was a report of what the state investigator found during visits. But also campers reported experiencing injuries, including sprains, knee injuries, smashed toes, and serious sunburns. And so I think this is really interesting. The investigation notes had 12 complaints filed against Camp Shane. And typically the department receives about 24 camp complaints per year. So that meant half of the complaints in an entire year were filed against Camp Shane. For context, there are more than 200 summer camps in Connecticut. And as Curry said, assuming it was a typical year, Camp Shane could have been responsible for about 50% of the complaints. For years, campers and counselors took issue with the second rate equipment, the low quality restricted food, and the dubious business strategies of the Yetinburgs. But now the evidence was too damning for the OEC not to take action. They had no choice but to ask David to surrender his camp license in the affidavit. Surrendering his license, Attenberg denied all charges, but he did agree that if he tried to reinstate or obtain a new license from the agency in the future, it would mean basically that the allegations in the investigation, which included missing campers and falsified documents, would be deemed true. This affidavit essentially makes it so that David can't obtain a new camp license without facing intense scrutiny and investigation. And some of those allegations in the record also include campers walking around unsupervised at night and in lightning storms, and who were encouraged to work out until they vomited. Counselors leaving campers unsupervised to, quote, hang out and, quote, party in the lounge. A counselor who yelled at and threatened to fight a camper, Falsified medical administration training documents presented to the state, Inappropriate, quote, comments of a sexual nature by a male camper toward a female camper, and multiple reports of campers being bullied. Here's Lily's mom, Pamela. Again, nothing about that camp was right. It was really actually like a horror movie because these kids were pretty much locked in these dorms without access to. To contacting the outside world. And if it wasn't for the, you know, the few hidden cell phones and the few teenagers that were able to use their phones, I mean, some of these kids are young, they're 8, 9, 10 years old, and they're completely unsupervised with prescription medicine laying all over the place. There was really nothing right about that year at all. Meanwhile, David made it publicly known in an interview with NBC Connecticut how the closure affected him personally. We have given all people their money back right after that, and it's a big hit for me financially. The effects of that summer lived on. Pamela's daughter Lily returned home, but her time at camp seriously affected her mental and physical health. This experience affected Lily in a lot of different ways, but I've recently learned that it's affected her much more deeply than I realized. She's been in counseling ever since this experience, and she's been pretty withdrawn and has spent a lot of time in her bedroom over the past couple of years. And I learned last week from her counselor that she's been diagnosed with an eating disorder. And that based on the labs that we're doing and her cardiologist, whether or not she's going to need to do inpatient stay or outpatient because she used to make herself throw up, and she can no longer hold food down on her own. So she's spontaneously vomiting, and it could have a fatal effect on her heart and her metabolic systems. Purging isn't something Lily did before camp. She learned it through other campers who, like her, were trying to fulfill camp Shane's weight loss goals. Stellen also returned home with baggage. The dive his mental health had taken while at camp only got worse. I was really depressed, honestly. It was traumatic, and it did have a big impact on the trajectory of my life back then. Stellan spent the first few days back at home, locked away in his bedroom. Those around him knew something was wrong, but they didn't know the severity of it. My dad, you know, he didn't think that I should have been acting that way, and he thought that I was overreacting in a way. He just wasn't there. The people who weren't there just won't really understand how bad it was and how traumatizing it was. That final summer left scars that could stay with some of these campers forever. And as we all now know, it wasn't just that one summer that was so problematic. It was what campsite Shane had been teaching and endorsing throughout its 52 years of operation. After decades of family squabbles, shady business moves, and unfulfilled promises, Camp Shane was done. Thanks to the parents, kids, and state agencies who fought to hold David and the camp accountable, Camp Shane closed its doors for the last time. A foot washed up a shoe with some bones in it. They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable. These are the coldest of cold cases. But everything is about to change. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA Using new scientific tools. They're finding clues in evidence so tiny, you might just miss it. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. On America's crime lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors, and you'll meet the team behind the scenes at othram, the Houston lab that takes on the most hopeless cases to finally survive, solve the unsolvable. Listen to America's crime Lab on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The summer of 1993 was one of the best of my life. I'm journalist Jeff Perlman, and this is Rick Jervis. We were interns at the Nashville Tennesse Inn. But the most unforgettable part, our roommate, Reggie Payne from Oakland, sports editor and aspiring rapper and his stage name, Sexy Sweat. In 2020, I had a simple idea. Let's find Reggie. We searched everywhere, but Reggie was gone. In February 2020, Reggie was having a diabetic episode. His mom called 911. Police cuffed him face down. He slipped into a coma and died. I'm like, thanking you, but then I see my son's not moving. No headlines, no outrage, just silence. So we started digging and uncovered city officials bent on protecting their own. Listen to finding sexy Sweat. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Jan Marsalek was a model of German corporate success. It seemed so damn simple for him. Also, it turned out a fraudster. Where does the money come from? That was something that I always was questioning myself. But what if I told you that was the least interesting thing about him? His secret office was less than 500 meters down the road. I often ask myself now, did I know the true Rian at all? Certain things in my life since then have gone terribly wrong. I don't know if they follow me to my home. It looks like the ingredients of a really grand spy story because this ties together the Cold War with the new one. Listen to Hot agent of chaos on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your entire identity has been fabricated. Your beloved brother goes missing without a trace. You discover the depths of your mother's illness, the way it has echoed and reverberated throughout your life, impacting your very legacy. Hi, I'm Dani Shapiro, and these are just a few of the profound and powerful stories I'll be mining on our 12th season of Family Secrets. With over 37 million downloads, we continue to be moved and inspired by our guests and their courageously told stories. I can't wait to share 10 powerful new episodes with you. Stories of tangled up identities, concealed truths, and the way in which family secrets almost always need to be told. I hope you'll join me and my extraordinary guests for this new season of Family Secrets. Listen to Family Secrets, Season 12 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast podcasts. So where do we sit now in a modern, civilized 2025 society? Well, Camp Shane is gone, but the world that built it remains. Sure, body inclusivity and fat acceptance have come a long way. We see it reflected in movies, on billboards, among influence influencers in clothing options. But for a true pulse on the state of fat liberation, look no further than the comment section of Instagram. Turn on the radio and count how many ads you hear for GLP1s like Ozempic or Mounjaro. Ask your fat friends and family about navigating a physical world manufactured for thin people. And if you think blatant body size distribution discrimination is a thing of the past, there are also these things that are even more systemic. That's Tigris Osborne, executive director of the national association to Advance Fat Acceptance. Things like wage disparity, things like housing discrimination. Like what your landlord or your, you know, other people in your building get to say about you and your body and what they think that means in terms of the, the, the use of the building. And like, there's lots of evidence of employment discrimination in everything from whether you get paid the same as your thin counterparts, even if you have the same or better qualifications, to things like do you even get past the first interview? You've done phone interviews and you've been doing great, then you show up at the office and all of a sudden something changes. Right. The discrimination that Tigress is referring to happens all over the country. Country. Well, except Michigan. It's legal to discriminate based on body size in all states but Michigan. And while all of this feels completely backward and archaic, and I want to be definitive, it absolutely is. There is reason to be hopeful about where we could go in the medical field. For example, some healthcare providers and patients are trying a different approach, one that doesn't focus on weight interventions. Here's Dr. Lisa Erlanger. We're saying this doesn't resonate with what has worked for me and my patients. Sending a kid to fat camp from a medical perspective is a very intensive intervention. I think there's a rising interest in what are the harms of being so aggressive about body size? What stigma does that perpetuate and what could it look like to be more weight inclusive? Some parents are leading their children to consciously take action against stigma and bias. Here's Dr. Rachel Milner. One of the things I've often thought about as a parent is that I cannot prevent my kids from being impacted by the culture. Diet culture is everywhere. There's no way for me to prevent them being exposed to weight stigma or anti fat bias. What I can do is give them the internal resources and compass to identify when they see weight stigma showing up. And I can make sure that our home is a place where their bodies will always be, be accepted and they'll never encounter body shame. And here's something we can all do in the name of equity and progress. We can check our own internal biases and learn how to be allies. Here's Tigris again. You don't have to be fat yourself or wait for the fat person to be the one who advocates for accessibility for fat people. You can spend your money in places that are accommodating to fat people. If you just look around the world through a lens of, you know, who is not here and why are they not here and include fat people in that lens and then take steps towards what that you know, like what it looks like to create a more inclusive and welcoming space that doesn't take law change, that, you know, that takes heart and mind change. Being free of shame can open up a whole new world for all of us, one where we can live boldly and freely. When you have the audacity to just be in the world as who you are, that has ripple effects for people around you that you might not even be be seeing. It is really empowering to see folks who look like you and who feel like you out in the world getting to live their best lives. I can't help but notice the stark difference between Tigris dream and Selma Ettenberg's dream. Tigress imagines a world where kids feel good about themselves no matter their size. Selma envisioned a world where kids could feel good because they got thrown thin. Maybe for her time, that's the best she could do. For former die Hard Shaner Carl Evans, Camp Shane was a place of profound personal growth with a side helping of guilt. The only way I can describe it is comparing it to what I've heard other people talk about when they had an abusive parent that they still loved. Die Part of trying to make peace with Kam Shane was the fact that I felt complacent in the harm that was happening. Even though me and a number of other counselors were actively defenders and protectors against things that could be harmful at camp, the fact that we didn't blow a whistle and tear it all down means that Dave got to go on in 2010 and 11 and 12 and 13 and 14 and still open the door and the possibilities. For every kid that found joy and happiness out of the camp, they could still there could have been others exposed to harm and hurt. For Stacey Toth, a 90s Shaner, her feelings about camp are much less complex. She sees all the ways Camp Shane failed her. I think coming to a place of acceptance and realizing I can be healthy and I can love myself no matter what my body looks like. I can choose to be active without it being about making my body smaller. I can choose to nourish my body with the foods that it needs, micro and macronutrients without feeling like I need to count calories. All of those are concepts that are things that I did not learn at a camp that in my opinion, could have benefited a lot of people. And what I really needed at that time was someone to ask me how I was feeling. For someone to say, like, you know, what's going on and how can I help? And nobody asks those Questions. Mark Rothenberg, a camper from the 80s, wishes his parents had chosen differently. We should be teaching kids how to find something they love and that will give them self confidence that isn't necessarily tied to their physical appearance. If my parents had said to me, you can stay home all day long provided you do two things. You spend an hour engaged in any physical activity of your choice. You could spend an hour in the pool, you could take a walk for an hour and you read a book or you write a story for an hour. That would have been my dream summer. If my parents had dropped me off at the public library. That would have been my dream summer if they were hell bent on putting me in a camp, a camp on learning how to make computer games or a creative writing camp. That would have been my dream summer. There were a million things my parents could have done without frankly spending a whole lot of money that would have in the long term, done far more for me than sending me away to lose 35 pounds that I would inevitably gain back. And those pounds brought a whole bunch of their friends with them. For me, I empathize with Shaners who grieve the loss of what once felt like home. But I also believe there are few things more criminal than to damage someone's relationship with their own body. And in that, Shane certainly played a part. If we're going to do that level of intervention, I think ethically we should be very sure that what we're trying to change is going to be a medical problem for that person, that our intervention will have long lasting medical benefits and that it won't have short or long term negative outcomes that outweigh those benefits. And fatcamp just doesn't meet any of those criteria. We can make this world better, more navigable, and more equitable. We can stop judging people's health by their size. We can disentangle our moral judgments from someone's physical appearance. We can be conscious that our expectations of beauty and desirability are influenced by society and are arbitrary and ever changing. We can accept that body size is neutral, that dieting does not work, and that fat bias has no place in a civilized society. Most importantly, we can create spaces for kids where they feel safe, accepted and loved for who they are instead of what they look like. And those safe spaces should, shouldn't just be in the wooded hills of Ferndale, New York. They should be everywhere. This is Camp Shame. We reached out to David Attenberg and his wife Zippora Janowski for commentary. At the time of this recording, we have not received a Reply Camp Shame is a production of I Heart Podcasts. I'm your host, Kelsey Snelling. Camp Shame is produced by Brittany Martinez, Taylor Williamson, Sarah Schleed, Lucy Jones, and Aaliyah Yates Grau. Our editor is Courtney Hommeister with additional editorial support from Lindsay Cradlewill and Grace Lynch. Our executive producers are Jenny Kaplan, Emily Rutter and me, Kelsey Snelling for iHeartMedia. Our executive producer is Christina Everett. Fact checking done by Madeline Gore, Lucy Jones, Paloma Moreno Jimenez, Lauren Williams and Fiona Pestana. Our theme music is produced by Shaun Patel. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram at campshame. That's with an M. If you or anyone you know went to Camp Shane, reach out with your camp stories. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime on the new podcast America's Crime Lab. Every case has a story to tell and the DNA holds the truth. He never thought he was going to get caught and I just looked at my computer screen, I was just like, ah, gotcha. This technology's already solving so many cases. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The Girlfriends is back with a new season, and this time I'm telling you the story of Kelly Harnett. Kelly spent over a decade in prison for a murder she says she didn't commit. As she fought for her freedom, she taught herself the law. He goes, oh God. Harnett Jailhouse Lawyer and became a beacon of hope for the women locked up alongside her. You're supposed to have your faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her. I think I was put here to save souls by getting people out of prison. The Girlfriends Jailhouse Lawyer listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Just like Great shoes, Great books take you places through unforgettable love stories and into conversations with characters you'll never forget. I think any good romance, it gives me this feeling of like butterflies. I'm Danielle Robaix and this is bookmarked by Reese's Book Club, the new podcast from hello Sunshine and I Heart Podcast where we dive into the stories that shape us on the page and off. Each week I'm joined by authors, celebs, book talk, stars and more for conversations that will make you laugh, cry and add way too many books to your TBR pile. Listen to Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Join iHeartRadio and Sarah Spain in celebrating the one year anniversary of I Heart Women's Sports. With powerful interviews and insider analysis. Our shows have connected fans with the heart of women's Sports. In just one year, the network has launched 15 shows and built a community united by Passion podcasts that amplify the voices of women in sports. Thank you for supporting iHeart women's sports and our founding sponsors E L F Beauty, Capital One and Novartis. Just open the free iHeart app and search iHeart Women's Sports to listen. Now this is an iHeart podcast.