There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from having to explain your child to the world before the world will make room for them. This episode is about what happens when someone decides to make the room first.

At the Greater Brandywine YMCA in Jennersville, Pennsylvania, Erin Lacotta— a Board Certified Behavior Analyst—and Kristen DeTaeye—a veteran educator with 14 years in the classroom — built something that many neurodiverse families have quietly longed for: a summer camp designed around the child, not in spite of them.

Bumblebee Camp is structured but not rigid. Data-informed but never cold. And it is, by every account, joyful.

In this conversation, we go behind the program: how it started, how it was scaled, what a full day actually looks like, how staff are chosen, and why the ratio of 1:3 is not just a number but a philosophy. We also talk about something that doesn't often make it into reports: the moment a parent drops off both of their children at the same camp for the first time and realizes they no longer have to choose.

This one is personal. And it is practical. And it is, I hope, exactly what someone out there needed to hear today.

🔗 Learn more about YMCA adaptive programs: ymcagbw.org/adaptive

📧 Jennersville programs: kdetaeye@ymcagbw.org

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Who Needs Shoes is a podcast about loving our children for who they are—not through the myopic lens of others. New episodes explore education, inclusion, family, advocacy, and the people doing the quiet, necessary work of building belonging.