SUMMERTON – It’s the happiest time of the year for many young kids suffering with cancer.
Camp Happy Days will return to Camp Bob Cooper in Summerton for another fun-filled year from June 29 through July 5, and organizers are still hoping for some last-minute donations to help make the week “extra-special,” Programs Coordinator Teresa Bishop said.
“A little more than 200 kids are planning to attend this year,” Bishop said last week. “We have a full array of events throughout the whole week, some of them still secret because we want to surprise the kids.”
Bishop said the camp – which is free of charge to children ages 4-16 who have cancer, their siblings or the siblings of children who have succumbed to cancer – is paid for through various fundraisers held throughout the state during the year prior to camp. Planning begins the day after camp is over.
For years, local resident Bill Ellis and his former coworkers have aided the camp in providing what Bishop calls the “normal camp experience” through their own fundraising and gathering of materials for the kids.
“We take anything that businesses or individuals want to give the kids, like toiletries, or combs, Frisbees, all that stuff,” Ellis said.
Bishop and camp staff are also reaching out for items to use during camp, including everything from bottled water to Elmer’s glue.
“We have a wish list – see sidebar – that we use to track what we need,” Bishop said. “Every little bit helps.”
Bishop said the camp is an important part of the kids’ lives. These are kids, she said, who spend the rest of the year undergoing chemotherapy, radiation or surgery, or frequently visiting doctors to check remission status. It’s a chance to get away from the hospitals and, most importantly, the parents.
“We do have medical treatment available, and kids do have treatment at camp,” Bishop said. “But the rest of the time, we go above and beyond. We take it to a whole other level, because at the end of the day, we don’t know if some of these kids will be with us the next year.”
