Sunrise- What a way to start a day!

You would think if you were going to visit a camp for kids with cancer you would see a lot of sick kids.  I went with LIBOR (Long Island Board of Rabbis) to visit Sunrise Day Camp at the Henry Kaufman Campgrounds on Long Island, a camp for 500 kids with cancer and their siblings, and I didn’t see one sick kid. 

I saw campers of all ages getting giant hugs from counselors.  I saw campers of different races and ethnicities running around and cheering with giant smiles on their faces.  I saw kids playing on the jungle gym, doing arts and crafts, getting ready for sports and swim.  (I’m sure they played sports and went swimming but I didn’t get to actually see that.)  I was reminded that while Sunrise grew out of Jewish values it is open to all kids as cancer doesn't care what religion you are.

The counselors, many of whom have been with the camp for multiple summers (Sunrise is in its 8^th year) are not told who is a primary patient and who is a sibling.  “That is a way they are identified in the outside world, but here they are all just campers,” said Beth Fenton, director of Development and our tour guide.

Today about 260 campers were at camp with around 100 counselors.  Over 500 campers are enrolled over the course of the summer.  On any given day 250-300 campers attend camp, which has bus pick ups at all the referring hospitals in the NY area.  The night before our visit was a late night for campers and their families so today’s attendance was a little light.

Michele Vernon, directs a camp that allows kids to be kids and have fun no matter what else is going on in their lives.  She and her team have thought of so many details.  All the staff members wear hats or bandanas so that any of the kids who have to wear a hat, because they have lost their hair, won’t feel funny.  “If a camper starts a project on Monday but has to be out Tuesday for a treatment, the project will be there waiting for him to finish on Wednesday, or whenever he returns, unlike in the outside world where everything keeps moving,”  shared Beth Fenton.

All the rabbis who visited saw congregants who are working as counselors there.

While camp is going on at the campgrounds in Wheatley Heights, in Israel and at the third Sunrise Day Camp which opened this summer in Pearl River, NY many of the activities are being mirrored at the hospitals where they have Sunrise on Wheels.  Sunrise on Wheels brings the camp experience to hospitals not only in the summer but throughout the year.

Sunrise Day Camp is a magical place that will not cure cancer but will make life easier and fuller for kids with cancer and their families.