Exhausted counselors would be laughing and yelling, and the uninformed visitor wouldn’t realize that Kesem is, in fact, so much more than an ordinary week in the woods.
All of the campers participating in the nationwide program have two things in common: they aren’t paying one cent to be there, and they have a parent who has been diagnosed with ?cancer.
Since its founding in 2000, the student-run camp has provided children dealing with their parents’ cancer a free week of summer camp.
It’s not therapy. It’s simply a time for kids to be kids.
“When you hear that you’re going to go to a camp because your parent is sick, you think everybody’s going to be sad and just talk about how our parents are dying,” said Abi Yates, former camper and current co-director of IU’s Kesem chapter. “But it’s not like that at all. The whole point is to forget that things might not be that great at home and realize that it’s okay to just be a kid and have fun.”
The nonprofit recruits college students to volunteer as counselors. IU hosted its first 23 campers in 2005. The University chapter recently announced the kick-off of its 11th season, in which it plans to welcome 160 children, ages 6 to 16, to two sessions of camp.
“It’s a population of kids that often gets overlooked,” junior Andy Barnett said of the 3 million children in the United States whose lives have been changed by a parent’s cancer. “Some of these kids have had to grow up too fast. Kesem tries to give them as normal an experience as possible and a support system that understands what they’re going through.”
The counselors give much more than one week to the organization. IU group members meet constantly throughout the year to plan activities, nail down logistics and find ways to raise the $90,000 needed each summer.
They also serve as friends and role models whenever their campers need them.
“My dad passed away when I was 16,” Yates said. “Without Kesem, I would’ve felt like I had no one to go to because none of my friends at school understood or knew what to say.”
When her family had a celebration of life for her father, Yates was happily surprised when 10 of her ?counselors arrived to pay their respects.
“It gave me so much strength because they were there for me even though I only see them for one week every year,” Yates said. “I was able to go to camp right after he passed away, and everyone there could say, ‘It’s okay, we all know how hard it is.’”
The camp supports not only the campers; parents are often equally grateful for Kesem’s work.
When all of their money is sucked into medical expenses, it can be extremely difficult to squeeze fun into the budget.
“The IU kids just pour their hearts on these campers,” said Gary Gettelfinger, whose two children participate in Kesem each year. “We’ve been able to take my kids on amazing vacations all over the world, and every time we ask them what their favorite part of the summer was, they say ‘Camp Kesem’ right away.”
It was Gettelfinger’s first wife Sharon, who passed away in 2007, who originally suggested her two children attend the camp. When their daughter, Olivia, first arrived at camp in 2009, she was already coping with the loss of her mother.
Looking back on years spent at camp, she remembers seeing three shooting stars in one night.
“I knew it was a sign from my mom saying, ‘I’m so happy that you love Kesem as much as I would,’” Olivia said. “Whenever a parent is diagnosed with cancer or is fighting cancer or dies from cancer, it creates a big hole in your heart, and Camp Kesem has been the only thing that has been able to help fill that hole for me.”
Counselors, parents and campers alike describe the camp as unlike any other experience.
It’s appropriate, they say, because the translation for the Hebrew word “kesem” is “magic.”
