Horseback riding, canoeing, fishing, arts and crafts, ropes courses, basketball, tennis and much, much more -- children ages six through 13 enjoyed themselves for a week in August, participating in all sorts of activities at a week-long camp at Camp Holiday Trails, just a few miles from the University.
Although the repertoire looks familiar at a glance, the campers at Camp Kesem share one characteristic that makes their experience much more meaningful than any other week-long camp: all of the participants are the children of cancer patients.
This summer's camp marked Camp Kesem Virginia's debut, and the culmination of a year of hard work to accommodate these 16 campers.
Fourth-year College student Jessica Zinder was in charge of recruitment for Camp Kesem Virginia. The organization recruited its campers mainly through contacting local school systems and hospitals. Zinder said they attended Relay for Life events as well.
"We thought it would be a lot easier recruiting campers, but it's hard because a lot of the patients are older and don't have young children," Zinder said.
Even so, Zinder said in the end there were more campers than expected. From what she understood of other Camp Kesem locations, their programs started out at the same rate and tripled in their second year.
"We hope to expand like that next year too," Zinder said. "We also learned the better ways to recruit. Hospital contacts were probably the most crucial thing to get campers."
Once the campers arrived, they took part in a wide range of activities, guided by counselors and staff. Joe Schlingbaum, one of Camp Kesem Virginia's co-founders, said working with the children was an enriching experience.
"These are kids who have really special needs," Schlingbaum said. "They don't get the attention that kids deserve in general. Anyone who works with us has a really unique opportunity to play an important part in these kids' lives."
The Camp Kesem staff said they were deeply affected by their experiences.
"I actually didn't realize how much of an effect it would have on me," Zinder said. "It didn't really hit me until the last day when all the parents were there, and we showed a slideshow of the week and showed how important that week was for their kids."
Zinder said the camp was the only fun summer experience for many of the campers.
"You have to keep in mind, for a lot of their parents, it's hard to give their kids away for a week, because they don't know how much time they have left," Zinder said.
The counselors and staff said they were so profoundly touched that no amount of explaining could accurately describe Camp Kesem.
"We've gotten together since, and all we kept saying [is] no matter how we describe it, no one will ever understand what kind of experience we got," Zinder said. "We probably got more out of it as counselors than the kids did."
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