STEVEN'S COUNTY, Wash — Camp Twigs, a three-day camp for children with Type 1 diabetes, was canceled this weekend because of fire danger in the Eastern Washington.

NonStop Local spoke with staff, participants and parents about the decision. The camp director said poor air quality was part of the reason organizers called it off.

Lily Campbell said she was disappointed after hoping to go back to camp this year.

"I was sad because I really wanted to go..." Lily Campbell said.

Lily said swimming was one of the things she enjoyed about summer camp.

"I like to swim..." Lily Campbell said.

Camp Stix in Spokane County and Camp Twigs in Stevens County were designed for kids with Type 1 diabetes. Organizers built the camps with close supervision and extra medical support.

"It's really just a summer camp, we just have a lot of extra steps we have to go through..." Jacob "Jagger" Thies said. "These are kids that have a chronic illness and have high medical needs..." he said.

Thies said the supervisor-to-participant ratio was near or greater than one-to-one. He also said canceling the camp was difficult even though safety made the choice clear.

"It's the best part of my summer. It's the best part of my year. I talk about it constantly and taking away that from the kids, even in this hard time, just absolutely broke my heart..." Thies said. "The easy part was to decide that it wasn't safe. The hardest part was taking camp away from these kids..." he said.

Lily's father, Mike Campbell, said her first year at camp stayed with her long after it ended. He said the camp gave families a place where support felt shared.

"She talked about it for probably a month afterwards..." Mike Campbell said. "When you have the community like that it's like it turns that burden into a shared journey..." he said.

Mike Campbell said telling Lily about the cancellation was tough because she had been excited.

"That was a hard one to break to Lily cause she was really looking forward to it..." Mike Campbell said. "She's so excited to be able to do the sleep away camp..." he said.

Even with this year's cancellation, Lily said she still remembered time spent with other kids at camp.

"I remember that we used to play together. I don't remember her name." Lily Campbell said.