At Camp One Step, paediatric cancer patients get to be kids again, in nature, with other kids on their cancer journeys.
A camper jokes around with a camp counselor as they play on. — Photos: STACEY WESCOTT/Chicago Tribune/TNS
Meanwhile campers as young as seven and as old as 19 are dining on hamburgers, fries, salad, cookies and Dilly bars in the dining hall to the left, where lost items are found and returned to their owners after a public, loud and funny camp song is sung by adult volunteers. “We were scared of the unknown and with Bailey, we were scared of the known,” said their mum, Erin Dove. “Leukaemia treatment is in a lot of phases and being able to check phases off felt good. Having to do it all over again was scary. Camp is their favourite place in the world, not just physically, but the place where their heart is.”
Last month, 227 campers were checked in, according to Devin Ryan, Camp One Step’s director of programme operations. With just 12 full-time staff members, the camps run on volunteer power, donations and corporate grants, Ryan said.
Former campers who are age 21 or older often become volunteer counsellors as a way to pay it forward, Ryan said. Serving as fishing buddies or as drivers who pick up prescriptions or camp supplies, volunteers make camp what it is.Former campers still remember their first counsellors. For Dylan Erdman, 27, his first counsellor at sibling camp – for siblings of kids with cancer – was Colleen McGrath, the current social media manager.
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