Summer camp is an annual rite for many children — and an opportunity to build social connections and a love of nature.

But for kids with serious health and life challenges, it’s not as simple as just driving them off to the country and picking them up a few weeks later.

That’s where Brigadoon Village is breaking new ground. Located near Aylesford Lake, Nova Scotia, it’s the first facility of its kind in Atlantic Canada and one of the largest pediatric camps in the country. Since 2011, it has hosted thousands of children aged 7-18 who are living with chronic health conditions like Crohn’s Disease, cancer, and heart issues. Others face life challenges like the death of a close family member.

The camp offers specialized services and support to ensure a great learning and growth experience.

“We bring kids and youth going through similar challenges together,” said Malcolm Elliot, Brigadoon Village’s camp director, “so they can have fun, meet others going through the same experiences who understand them on a deep level, and build community and support systems.”

Today, around 700 children pass through each summer. And as one happy parent shared, “I can’t imagine my child’s life without the experience of camp.”

But as Brigadoon Village CEO Krista Ballem stressed, creating that great experience demands solid, secure network connections.

“This is a beautiful but somewhat remote location,” she said. “Our kids, parents, staff and health professionals need to know they are connected -- and that our organization will run smoothly and efficiently.”

Cisco volunteers step in

That’s where two enterprising and compassionate Cisco employees — Todd Greenlaw and Andrew McCracken — have made a real difference, by contributing their time, expertise, and Cisco Meraki networking technology.

The two stepped in during the pandemic, when the camp secured funding for a long-overdue physical renovation. But beyond its structures, the network was sorely out of date.

“Their connectivity was really spotty,” explained Greenlaw, who is a Cisco engineer based in Halifax. “They had tried dial-up and point-to-point wireless, which didn't work very well. And they even tried satellite for a while. But they’re in a very remote area, and consistent connectivity was a real problem.”

The Cisco volunteers worked with a local service provider to expand fiber connections, and once that was in place, a full digital transformation was possible.

“They're in a very remote area, with lots of trees and farmland” added McCracken, a Cisco technical solutions architect also based in Halifax. “It’s not heavily populated. But once they got fiber connectivity in, we had the opportunity to build out a very robust networking system.”

Keeping campers and staff connected and secure

It would be nice to live in a world where hackers don’t pick targets like pediatric camps. But given the medical records and private financial data being shared at Brigadoon, the Cisco Meraki security features were critical.

IMP Solutions, a Canadian technical services firm and longtime Gold partner of Cisco, worked with the local team and helped fund the overall IT investment and services. And as IMP vice president of advanced solutions Dave Power explained, security — both cyber and physical — was a prime concern.

“We wanted the camp to get the latest and greatest technology and really address access and security,” Power said. “We were concerned with the physical security of the campers themselves. At the same time, Atlantic Canada has been hit hard with breaches. There is medical data being shared at Brigadoon, and cybersecurity around this data was paramount.”

The answer to the connectivity and security challenges was the full Cisco Meraki stack.

This included wireless access points deployed throughout the campus, ethernet switches to power the access points and backhaul the traffic to a central location, and Meraki security appliances for perimeter security.

“Cisco Meraki is an industry leader,” said Power “So the same technologies that sit in some Fortune 500 companies today are also sitting in that camp.”

“We know how drastically important security is,” Elliot added. “So, it’s nice to feel confident that only people who need access to information will get it.”

To make it all happen, McCracken and Greenlaw needed more than just technology. They needed time. Cisco’s Time to Give program, which offers employees paid time off to pursue volunteer activities that help communities, provided freedom.

“We used our Time to Give hours,” said McCracken. “Growing up in Nova Scotia and spending time in the area around the camps — being parents — Todd and I felt a connection right away. So, we wanted to get involved and help out.”

Today, the Brigadoon network is modern, flexible, and having a big impact.

“We were happy to put in the work where it could make such a difference,” McCracken said. “We went from almost nothing to a level of connectivity that you’d find in a small city.”

Elliot attests that processes at the camp that have been slow and paper based are now streamlined and efficient — everything from onboarding campers to accessing educational (or fun!) content for camp sessions. Not to mention, by making the staff’s work as seamless and easy as possible, it frees them to spend more time doing what they do best: supporting the campers.

“I’d just like to say how grateful Brigadoon is for Cisco,” he said, “in helping us with our current technology and our connectivity. It’s a big part of getting to where we are today.”

Ballem agreed.

“We’re excited about the future,” she concluded. “This technology and support will allow us to collaborate in new ways and keep helping kids have a great camp experience.”