It’s hard to ‘just be a kid’ when you are battling cancer. There are medical treatments you have to undergo that you don’t fully understand, as well as parts of a normal childhood that you miss out on because you are too sick to experience them. However, there is one wonderful organization that I had the honor of volunteering for this last week called Camp Journey.
The mission of Camp Journey is to give children ages 7-17 who are affected by cancer a safe place to have fun, experience the outdoors, and be with others who understand what they have been through. Unlike other normal overnight camps, Camp Journey has a trained oncology staff on site 24/7 in case of an emergency or any other needs a camper might have. Furthermore, the camp is completely funded by donations so that no family ever has to pay for their child to attend camp. Each of the campers is also able to bring a sibling or a friend to camp with them. As parents dropped their children off on the first day of camp, I could see on their faces what a blessing this place was.
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As this was my first year as a volunteer for Camp Journey, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. All of the volunteers arrived a day early for training where we learned more about our volunteer assignments as well as the do’s and don’ts of camp. The first thing that I learned at the training was that I would be stripped of my real name for the rest of the week and would go by my ‘camp name’ that I had chosen a few weeks earlier. I had chosen the name Merida, after the princess from the movie ‘Brave’. Other camp names included Shipwreck, Jelly Bean, and Tofu, just to name a few. From the time training began through the end of the week we used our camp names with the campers and our fellow counselors. To this day, I only know a couple of the other counselor’s real names. The use of camp names was another element that made camp even more magical for the kids.
For the week, I was assigned to help with camp programming. These programs included activities like swimming, crafts, boating, archery, sports, outdoor adventure, and more. The kids would go to different activities with their cabins each day and would also get to go to one activity of their choosing three times during the week to get more in-depth with it. These ‘progressive programs’ as they were called, were activities like scrapbooking, climbing, robotics, fishing, and a few more. Along with camp activities such as these, every day of the week, there was a huge all-camp program that we all did together. These programs included a scavenger hunt, a color run, a Coeur d'Alene boat cruise, a night swim, a dance, and a talent show. I got to do more fun activities in the last week as a volunteer then I have all summer.
What struck me most about Camp Journey though wasn’t all of the amazing activities that the kids got to do, but rather the air of kindness and resilience that each of them possessed. For the most part, looking at the campers, you weren’t able to tell who the cancer survivors were and who the ‘buddy’ was that was brought to camp. From the outside looking in, most of the children just looked like regular kids who wanted to have a good time. However, after spending time with them, I could see that the campers were more thoughtful than you might expect kids their age to be. There were some campers who couldn’t walk very well or who were in the midst of treatment and were not feeling very good. Rather than shy away from those who couldn’t quite keep up with the group, the campers always strived to include these campers and make sure they were having a good time. It was little actions such as these that made Camp Journey even more special.
The last night of the week, we had an all-camp campfire for all 120 campers and volunteers. We gathered around the fire pit and each cabin tossed in a stick and shared what Camp Journey meant to them. It was remarkable to hear the stories of the older campers who had been coming to Camp Journey for five or six years. They expressed what a blessing it was to have somewhere to go every summer where they could make new friends, have fun, and be with others who understood them. There was one camper especially whose words stuck with me.
He was 17 and therefore was ‘graduating’ from camp and will not be able to come back for a couple years until he is old enough to be a counselor. He shared that what he would miss most about camp was the compassion that each of them extended to one another and the love he felt for each and every camper. He remarked that it is easy to leave camp and go back to the ‘real world’ and forget what it is like to be in a place filled with so much kindness. Rather than wish to be back at Camp Journey, though, he urged us to take the kindness and compassion that we express here at camp into the real world and make it a more loving place. It was astounding to hear such wise words from someone so young.
After each cabin had thrown their stick into the fire, the Camp Journey tradition of wish boats commenced. The ‘wish boats’ were hollowed-out walnut shells filled with candle wax and wicks. Each camper and volunteer lit one wish boat, floated it out into the cove, and made a wish. One camper that I had spent some time with came up to me afterward, hugged me, and whispered that her wish was to come back again next year. As I floated my little walnut wish boat, I made the same wish.
The next day was a bittersweet time. We all ate breakfast together before the parents began arriving to pick up their campers. As I watched the campers driving away with their families, sad that they were leaving but excited at the prospect of Camp Journey 2017, I was reminded of the first night of camp. There had been a mixer for the campers with a DJ and everything where the kids could dance and socialize with each other. One of the last songs that came on was “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten. When the song came on, every camper began dancing and singing out the lyrics like the song was meant just for them. Watching the kids dance and sing with such joy to that song reminded me of what Camp Journey is truly about: Hope. Hope in the face of a seemingly unbeatable opponent. Hope that one day, Camp Journey will be a place not for kids with cancer, but for those that have been cured of cancer.
If you would like to learn more about Camp Journey or to donate to Camp Journey you can go here.
