How our campers take Camp back home with them

     We enjoy being with our campers for a whole week at camp.  We play.  We have fun.  We enjoy each other’s company.  At the end of the week, everyone says their tearful goodbyes as we bid adieu to camp for the year.  But is that the last time we see our campers for the year? NO!

     Throughout the year, we get excited every time we open our mailbox (yes we have a mailbox! Send us something  fun at P.O. Box 7173, University Station, Provo, UT 84604) and find an invitation to a camper’s event.  Over the years, this has ranged from band concerts and school plays, to Eagle Scout Court of Honors and baptisms.  We do our best to make it to as many as we can to support our campers and their accomplishments.  At the same time, we have become more familiar with Northern Utah!  So if you ever want to go up north, we can show you the way!

But more than simply a night of entertainment, what these children are accomplishing runs so much deeper.  At camp, Camp Kesem provides children with the opportunity to be kids for the week.  To leave problems and burdens back home.  For a week, they run, jump, eat, play, make, swim, climb, eat, shout, fish, hide, eat, and sometimes sleep if there is time.  But what of the other 51 weeks in the year?  When we attend these activities the kids are a part of, we are able to see them take home the mission of Camp Kesem: to be kids.  They refuse to let cancer take a hold of their lives and continue to keep doing what makes them happy.

     A few weeks ago, we were able to hold our Fall Reunion, and were very pleased with such a large turnout.  We were able see many of our campers and catch up on what they had been up to since camp.  School, crushes, dang homework, and eating would frequent these conversations.  We see these kids succeeding and achieving and know that they will overcome the presence of cancer within their families. They have already shown us how.