Camp Shane was once the most popular weight loss camp in America. It was the best summers of my life. Thousands of kids and teens spent their summers at Shane and together lost hundreds and hundreds of pounds.
I went from one sixty to one forty.
I lost twenty seven pounds. I've lost eighty seven point six pounds in nine leaks. From the outside, Camp Shane seemed like a utopia for kids who felt unwanted by the real world. It was a family business whose mission was to help campers change their lives. And business was good, real good.
We were busting at the seams at that point, five hundred and seventy five kids. It was a lot.
But beyond the profits and the accolades, Shane had some sinister secrets. It was no guidance.
It was more or less throw a bunch of kids at a place call at a fitness camp.
They see a bunch of kids that go in heavy and they come out thin, and they're not asking any other questions.
What I didn't know at the time know was that he was grooming me. I don't know that I fully understood body shame until I went to a fat camp and It's why it was called Camp Shame.
Then, in the middle of summer twenty twenty one.
Camp closed, parents left scrambling.
The state is now investigating the sudden closure. What led an acclaimed weight loss camp to suddenly close its doors after fifty years in operation? What happens when the goal is weight loss at any cost. I'm Kelsey Snelling. I've spent over a decade uncovering the dark truth behind Camp Shame and the culture that fueled it's decades long success, and it turns out there's a very heavy price to shame. This experience still hurts to this day.
It's still haunts me to this day.
Listen to Cam Shame starting on June fifth, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.