This past Sunday, I was finally able to attend my first reunion for Camp Kesem! I had a blast seeing all my campers again, and it was great being able to meet all their families as well.
On the surface, Camp Kesem is a free-of-charge summer camp that is solely for children who have had a parent affected by cancer (you can read more about my first experience at camp here.) But it’s more than that; it’s a community that gives each camper year-long support. The reunion is evidence of that.
Around 20 campers aged 5-16 came with their families. We had a potluck and organized an array of games and activities for everyone to play. I’d say the biggest hit was the water balloon fight, and my biggest hit was right in the middle of my back!
Even though it was technically called a “reunion,” campers who are going to camp this year but didn’t go last year were still invited. This was really cool, because it allowed these kids to meet some of their fellow campers early. Two examples of this are 7 year-old Coco and her 9 year-old brother, Taco. Even though they didn’t know anyone there, they still had tons of fun and were able to become friends with a lot of other campers!
The last event of the day was the easter egg hunt. However, people started getting confused when we began to find plastic egg shells with holes in them and the candy missing. Turns out, the squirrels had been finding the eggs and taking them to their trees! Everyone still ended up finding tons of eggs, and we were more than happy to share.
This is the area on campus where we had our easter egg hunt!
After the reunion had ended, I noticed that Taco, Coco, and 2 other campers called Books and Zoo were playing four square with a basketball. I asked them if they wanted to go play basketball instead of four square, and they were ecstatic! I led them to the blacktop on campus and we all played for almost a whole hour. Everyone had a great time, and not a single one of the kids aged 5-9 cried!
Not only was the reunion fun for everyone, but it made me super excited for the summer camp. Having a year of experience under my belt, I know that this year’s camp will be better than ever.
