Camp Kesem

A couple of months ago my awesome aunt sent me some info about a camp that I had never heard of before.  It's a camp for kids who have/had parents with cancer.  It's a fun opportunity for the kids to have a great time in the company of other kids who have something in common with them.  Camp Kesem is a nation wide thing, and it's basically run by volunteer college students.  The one for BYU was long since full by the time we heard about it, but SUU was still looking for campers (and SUU's camp was going to be closer to our house than their campus, so distance wasn't an issue).  After looking into it a bit (I didn't want this to give the kids issues they didn't have before going there...) and chatting with my aunt a few times about her thoughts and what she had heard and knew about it, we decided to sign the kids up!  The kids have to be at least 6 years old, so only Shelly and Jason were able to go.  Emily has had a bit of hard time with that...

Jason and Shelly have been anxiously looking forward to it all summer.  I usually don't tell the kids about things too far in advance of big events - I dislike the ups and downs and drama that is kids waiting on pins and needles.  This time though, I was worried about Jason and whether he would actually want to go to a camp, so I asked the kids before I even signed them up.  This summer has been rather full of questions about when it is, where it is, how they're getting there, what stuff they will do there...

The day finally came!  On Sunday we drove up to the camp to drop them off.  Poor Shelly got carsick about 5 miles from camp, but even still, she was excited to go.  Jason was also excited, until we got out to go register them.  Apparently everyone there picks a camp name, any name they want.  The people at registration were Chocolate Fury, Master Po, Bubbles, Starburst, Nala, Mufasa, Pumba, M&M - names like that.  The idea is that they can be whoever they want to be at camp.  None of the paperwork they sent me said anything about that, so I didn't know to warn them about it and give them time to come up with a name.  This did not phase Shelly.  She came up with a name in under a minute.  She chose 'Pillow' to be her camp name.  Jason had a harder time coming up with a name.  Eventually we decided to do a tour of the camp, pick a bed and come back to name picking later.  He spent the next most of an hour telling me he wanted to go home.  The councilors there were very good with him.  His cabin councilor was Master Po, and was super patient with him when he refused to pick a bed (we finally just picked one for him and moved on - I did tell him that once we were done checking in Shelly, if he still didn't want to stay I wouldn't make him).  We then went to hang out on the grass with the kids' unit councilor Bubbles (I have no idea what her actual name is) - Shelly and Jason are in the same activities unit.  She was also awesome with him, we played a game and then Bubbles took her kids that were already there (Pillow, Ells, and Pillow's un-named little brother) to the mess hall to see M&M and get a snack.  While there Bubbles managed to soften Jason up a bit, ask some questions of the kids and we finally got Jason to the point where he came up with a name that he liked.  He chose Chomper (the baby t-rex from the Land Before Time series).

Once Jason had a name he was back to his happy self again, and more than willing to stay at camp.  We got him a name tag, kissed the kids goodbye and drove away, confident that the kids were in good hands.

We pick them up on Friday.  I confess I'm a little bit curious how Jason will handle camp.  He has a bit of a stubborn personality (as I'm sure anyone who's interacted with him for more than 5 minutes has noticed) and is rather strong willed.  I think I read somewhere that they will have stuff set up for the kids to show off what they did during camp at pick-up time.  I can already picture Shelly's spot full of fun crafts and adventures, and Jason' spot completely empty - with maybe a picture that someone else colored in for him with his name on it...  He is not a craft person.  I just hope he manages to have fun at least some of the time, and not ruin camp for some poor counselor who gets to sit with him when he's grumpy.  I guess we'll find out on Friday...