An entire week free of worry is an attractive prospect for anyone, but if you’re a child with a cancer diagnosis, the idea represents an especially rare and significant opportunity.
This is the philosophy behind Camp No Worries, a nonprofit, week-long summer program at Camp Inawendiwin in Tabernacle, that caters specifically to children with cancer and their siblings.
According to its website, Camp No Worries is a place where children with cancer and their siblings can just be kids for one week every summer.
This summer, the camp will be celebrating its 25th anniversary with Superhero Day, a day of superhero-themed activities for campers.
To aid in the camp’s efforts, Burlington Township High School family and consumer science teacher Heather Barr enlisted the help of some of her current and former students to sew capes for campers to wear on Superhero Day.
“We’re all about family and community so we try and do a lot of community activities,” said Barr.
Over the course of the next few weeks, the group will be meeting every Wednesday to sew with an end goal of 200 capes.
Last Wednesday, camp secretary Pam Hall came to the high school to thank the volunteers for their efforts and share the story of Camp No Worries.
Some 25 years ago, Pam’s daughter Kasey was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor at age 11. Through multiple treatments, Kasey beat her diagnosis, but decided she wasn’t quite done with cancer.
She decided to use what she and her parents had learned throughout the process of her diagnosis, treatment and recovery to create a summer camp environment specifically for kids facing a cancer diagnosis.
She wanted to provide a place where these kids could be kids without feeling like they were different from everyone else.
“They know that everyone there has gone through everything they have gone through,” said Pam. “For all the hardships that go with it, these kids are the most inspirational group of people you’d ever want to meet.”
When Barr reached out to her and fellow FCS teacher Ruth Seel’s students for help with the sewing project, she says volunteers made themselves available in no time.
“We also posted it to (Seel’s) clothing students because there are a few like myself who have no sewing experience at all so we definitely have jobs for everybody,” said Barr.
Unlike Barr, junior student Savannah Gurule is a whiz behind a sewing machine. She has taken one of Seel’s sewing classes and designs costumes for her school’s theater department.
Presented with an opportunity to volunteer, Gurule decided to put her considerable talents to good use.
“I think it’s really important that if you know a skill, then you use it to help others,” said Savannah. “I want the children to have fun. I want these capes to make them feel super.”
For more information about Camp No Worries, visit campnoworries.org.
