Help Me to Give Back to Camp Kesem!

Hello - I’m Lillian! I’m attending Appalachian State University, and over the past seven years, my brother Samuel and I, or maybe it’s better to refer to us as Ninja and Koala (camp names we’ve had for years), have had the privilege of attending Camp Kesem for one week out of the year to meet with other kids just like us who have had their lives turned upside down by having a parent diagnosed with cancer.

I was just looking through my journal from seven years ago, and I made a journal entry the first day I figured out Mom got cancer, and I’m in denial and dismissive- I refer to it as “a little cancer” as my brain couldn’t process much more. In school, everyone didn’t know how to deal with me or approach me or talk to me. Teachers gave me strange somber glances, and classmates pitied me - it felt very isolating. Emotionally, my brother and I didn’t know how to cope and adapt, and having a parent in the hospital for a month (who you couldn’t visit because it was flu season) was the hardest thing I had to face up to that point. But honestly, Camp Kesem helped me so much.

Camp Kesem is sponsored and mostly run by college students as part of a bigger organization, and they fully fund this camp to make it completely free and fully accessible for children all around the country to get together and meet with people who can understand their hardships to create new friendships. This camp was huge for me as a child and was one of the ways I met some of my best friends today, whom I still talk with on a regular basis online. At Camp Kesem, you’re always playing games, meeting with new people, and trying new activities - it’s so uplifting and empowering, and it’s honestly made me a better person.

Now that I’m 19, I’ve aged out. I was so incredibly upset, as I went every single year except for Covid. It’s part of me now, and dozens and dozens of pages from my journals are listing my adventures from Camp Kesem. I owe so, so much to them and their community. Thus, I’m doing my best to serve as a camp counselor these coming years.

I want to work with the littles and the newcomers and all the rest to just help carry on the joy and happiness this camp has provided to me thus far.

If you could just share this with friends and family, just to your direct family even, or to someone you know who has been impacted by cancer like my family and all of the others who work for Kesem, even just getting the word around is beneficial for this amazing community. My goal is to raise 250 dollars for this incredible community; any addition helps!

Thank you so, so much for your time.