Oh, it’s here! Can you feel it? Smell it? Its summer…those glorious long lazy hot days with no homework, dinners outside and warm nights. You don’t have to be a kid to love summer, it brings out the best in all of us. Everyone needs the rest and fun that summer brings, especially children with cancer.
Pediatric oncology nurse, Dorothy Jordan, realized this early on when she founded Camp Sunshine in 1982. She saw what happened to children who received cancer diagnosis and the change that occurred from feeling like a kid to feeling scared and alone. Dorothy wanted a place where children could be kids, have fun, feel the acceptance from other children in their situation.
Her goal was to provide these children with a fun, relaxing and traditional summer camp that had 24-hour medical care, so even kids receiving chemotherapy could have supervised treatments and join in the daily activities.
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The first year the camp had 44 children and today it has evolved into over 200 children attending summer camp. In addition, a year round facility called Camp Sunshine House opened in order to offer support and education for families and children year round.
The impact is clear. “We are changing lives,” says Sally Hale, MN, RN, executive director of Camp Sunshine, who served as a nurse at the very first camp held in 1983. “When the children are at camp, they are just like everyone else. It gives them such a confidence boost because often it’s the first time in a long time that they’ve felt normal. And after camp, many parents say that we have actually given them their old child back.”
That is a greater gift than summer. Charity Matters.
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