Camp Helps Sick Kids Have Fun Again
Published: November 27, 2005
The holiday season is a great time to look for the good things in life. A special camp is helping kids with cancer remember how to have fun. ABC7’s Cheryl Jennings takes a look once again at Camp Okizu.
The first day of camp for these youngsters is the beginning of a week of fun, so they can forget their critical health problems for just a little while. They are living with cancer or have survived cancer and get to attend Camp Okizu for free, in the Sierra foothills. It’s near Lake Oroville in Butte County. [100 Questions & Answers About Your Child’s Cancer]
It’s a rewarding experience for the kids and volunteer counselors like Web in the yellow t-shirt. Campers and counselors get new names at camp. It’s part of the program. Web is a counselor now. He was a camper for six years, a survivor of leukemia.
Web, Camp Okizu counselor: “I remember a lot of the bad stuff, like feeling really sick because of the chemotherapies and refusing to take my medications.”
The new campers know the counselors understand their illnesses.
Camper: “I had brain cancer, when I was three, for until I was five, I think. My hair was bald, my head was bald.”
Lunchtime is always a fun time. Everybody eats together and sings together.
The doctors and nurses all volunteer their vacation time to be here. They’re busy sorting, boxing and labeling the children’s medications –90 kids and 90 sets of meds. Their hard work means the kids don’t have to worry about their meds and can just focus on camp. They’re very open about their illness.
Camper: “When I was in second grade, I got Leukemia and my family was all sad and stuff.*”"
Camper: “I was about two or three or four when I got Leukemia. It was really hard and I had to stay in the hospital a lot.”
Camper: “When I was 18 months old I had some like germ cell tumor thing, which I have no clue what the real name is.”
Camper: “I was 18 months when I got brain cancer and I had it since then until I was five.”
Camper: “They told my mom that I had Leukemia and they were scared. They thought I wasn’t going to live. They thought I had 50 percent to live, 50 percent to die. And so I got good and now I’m right here.”
Camper: “I’m really happy because I know a lot of kids don’t get this far as me, but I’m really lucky.”
We’ve taken you to Camp Okizu for many years to show you the activities these children enjoy. You, our viewers, sent money to get this camp built. You’ve stayed with us to help keep the programs going.
Web: “We have like boating, swimming, archery, arts and crafts, there’s all sorts of things. You find one thing they’re good at and then they just go, and it’s the most amazing thing to see.”
It was a dream started 24 years ago. Camp founders John Bell and bone marrow transplant specialist Dr. Mike Amylon from Stanford are the driving forces behind camp. It’s extremely rewarding for them to see the kids enjoy themselves so much and create memories in just a week that last a lifetime. [Childhood Memories]
John Bell, Camp Okizu co-founder: “It is amzing to us too, that one week can change a life so much.”
And they love the fact that many campers like Web return as counselors.
Dr. Mike Amylon, Camp Okizu co-founder: “They see a concrete example of somebody who was in the same situation they were in and now looks great and now is doing good things with their life. So, it’s a great role model.”
John Bell: “That’s the reward for us, is that we would have affected these people enough that they would know how important it was to come back and affect other people that way and have their name become part of somebody’s history.”
Web: “The experience you get here is so amazing, that, A — I can’t imagine not coming back and re-experiencing it, even if I’m not a camper and B — I’d love to be able to come back and give that experience to other guys like this one right here.”
You can donate or sign-up to volunteer or learn about upcoming fundraisers for Camp Okizu by visiting their Web site at www.okizu.org.
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