Conrad Joungewaard, the Director of the Centinela Valley YMCA during the 1940’s, asked his support group called the Inglewood ‘Y’s Men Club, and the Y’s Mennetts (the female counterpart) to help build a place where nature and human nurture could come together. The volunteers worked together with the Calkin’s Family Construction Company, and built Camp at a site in the Barton Flats area of the San Bernardino Mountains – about 45 minutes south of Big Bear Lake. They named it Camp ‘Conrad’ in honor of the YMCA director who inspired its formation. The very first campers arrive in the summer of 1949.

In 1957, a young physician from the University at Loma Linda Hospital contacted the then current director of the YMCA Camp Conrad, Jim Risner, and asked if he could start a summer camp for children with Type 1 diabetes. The young physician, Dr. Robert F. Chinnock, wanted to provide children with diabetes a positive camping experience and demonstrate to everyone that, when managed correctly, these children could participate in the same activities considered only possible for children without diabetes. It was through the joint effort of these two pioneers, that the Southern California diabetes camping program was born.