By Marco Padilla of Cottonwood Elementary School
Cancer is an illness that people can have. There is a camp that can help support children who have parents fighting cancer or have died from this illness. On “campkesem.org” it reported, “Over 5 million children have been impacted by a parent’s cancer.”
Camp Kesem is a non-profit organization driven by college students from universities around the United States. Camp Kesem is a free sleep-away camp for children ages 6-18 whose parent or caregiver currently has cancer, has died from cancer, or is a cancer survivor. Catherine Gavin and Morgan Gascho, who met at Empire High School and are now U of A students, are co-directors that help organize the camp with the help of other U of A students. Catherine Gavin said that the campers will spend the week on Mt. Lemmon, where they will play games and sit around a campfire and sing songs. They will canoe and get to do archery. They can talk about how cancer impacts them, but they don’t have to. There was a Friends and Family day on April 6, 2019. It started at Udall Park at 10:30 AM and ended at 2:00 PM. The kids that are going to camp played games, learned songs, and got to know each other before going to camp this summer. People can help by donating art/craft supplies or other camp game supplies. You can also donate money at https://donate.kesem.org/campaign/friends-of-camp-kesem-at-university-of-arizona-fy-2019/c183662
Camp Kesem will take place at Camp Lawton on Mount Lemmon this July 14-20. You can contact the U of A Camp Kesem at uarizona@campkesem.org, if you have any more questions.
