Camp Kesem is a community of college campuses, on which student leaders develop and operate free week-long summer camps for children in families coping with cancer. Camp Kesem is currently on 20 campuses around the country.

Position Statement: Camp Kesem is a college student-run summer camp for kids whose parents have (or have had) cancer. Camp Kesem transforms kids into campers who return home with an enhanced sense of confidence and a new set of powerfully bound friendships forged in a cancer-aware yet fun-focused environment.

Kesem (n.): magic; the ability to change a life; an agent of growth; the unique power that transforms kids into Camp Kesem Campers

History

The first Camp Kesem™ project was founded at Stanford University in 2000 as a project of Hillel at Stanford, a nonprofit serving Jewish students at the University. The project was developed by a group of student leaders who sought to create a magical summer camp experience for children in need. Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University (or simply Stanford), is a private university located approximately 37 miles (60 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco and approximately 20 miles northwest of San José in Stanford, California. ... Hillel is a Hebrew name that has been held by many famous Jewish rabbis and thinkers. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination...

After assessing the needs of the community, the students found that children who have/had a parent with cancer comprised an under-served population who could benefit from a summer camp experience with peers who faced similar challenges.

The Camp Kesem project at Stanford hosted its first summer session in June 2001 free of charge to 37 campers. Since then, the project has continued and has grown each year to engage more student volunteers and serve more children.

Based on the success of the Camp Kesem project at Stanford, Camp Kesem National was founded in August 2002 to share the Camp Kesem project model with college campuses across the nation.

The University of California, San Diego (popularly known as UCSD, or sometimes UC San Diego) is a public, coeducational research university located in La Jolla, a seaside resort community of San Diego, California. ... Binomial name Ucla xenogrammus Holleman, 1993 The largemouth triplefin, Ucla xenogrammus, is a fish of the family Tripterygiidae and only member of the genus Ucla, found in the Pacific Ocean from Viet Nam, the Philippines, Palau and the Caroline Islands to Papua New Guinea, Australia (including Christmas Island), and the... The University of California, Davis, commonly known as UC Davis, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, and was established as the University Farm in 1905. ... Indiana University, founded in 1820, is a nine-campus university system in the state of Indiana. ... Northwestern University is a private, coeducational, non-sectarian research university located in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois. ... The University of Virginia (also called U.Va. ... The College of Saint Rose In Tuo Lumino Videbumus Lumen (In Thy Light We Shall See Light) The College of Saint Rose is a private, independent, co-educational college in Albany, New York, founded in 1920 by the Sisters of Saint Joseph. ... Mapúa Institute of Technology (MIT, MapúaTech or simply Mapúa) is a private, non-sectarian, Filipino tertiary institute located in Intramuros, Manila. ... The University of Illinois is the set of three public universities in Illinois. ... Sather tower (the Campanile) looking out over the San Francisco Bay and Mount Tamalpais. ... San Diego State University (SDSU), founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, is the largest and oldest higher education facility in the greater San Diego area (generally the City and County of San Diego), and is part of the California State University system. ... Columbia University is a private research university in the United States and a member of the prestigious Ivy League. ... Michigan State University (MSU) is a co-educational public research university in East Lansing, Michigan USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act. ... Arizona State University (ASU) is a public research institution of higher education and research with campuses located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. ... ... The University of Cincinnati is a state university located in Cincinnati, Ohio. ... Washington University in St. ...

Need

Children who have or had a parent with cancer are neither physically ill nor visibly distinct from other children. As a result, their situation at home is often unknown to peers and teachers and their emotional needs often go unnoticed. Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ...

In addition, it is challenging for these children to find peers with whom they can relate, and they are often left feeling completely alone when coping with the fear, anger, guilt, and sadness associated with having a parent who has cancer or has died from cancer.

How Camp Kesem fulfills this need

Camp Kesem camp programs give these children a place to be where they no longer feel alone---every child at Camp Kesem™ can understand what their fellow campers are going through. Many children at Camp Kesem programs develop friendships with peers to whom they can truly relate for the first time in their lives.

At Camp Kesem, children are empowered with the tools to express their emotions through camp activities, such as arts and crafts, drama, and cabin chat. The tools, and the friendships gained provide support for these children well beyond the week of camp.

Other than the Camp Kesem camp programs, there are very few camp programs in the United States that serve this population. There are thousands of children in need of the support a Camp Kesem program provides, and Camp Kesem National is committed to fulfilling this need, one camp, one child, at a time.

Vision, Mission, and Values

Vision: To create a community where fun has the power to transform lives.

Mission: Our mission is twofold:
- To provide kids whose parents have or have had cancer with a summer camp experience that gives them a chance to be kids
- To allow college students to channel their passion for making a difference, while developing critical leadership skills for long-term social impact

Values:
-Compassion
-Community
-Safety
-Confidence
-Leadership
-Magic

External links

• Camp Kesem
• Camp Kesem North Carolina
• Camp Kesem Northwestern
• Camp Kesem Virginia
• Camp Kesem at Indiana University
• Camp Kesem at Chicago
• Camp Kesem at UC-Davis
• Camp Kesem at UC-Los Angeles
• Camp Kesem at UC-San Diego
• Camp Kesem at Notre Dame
• Camp Kesem at Stanford
• Camp Kesem at University of Illinois
• Camp Kesem at UC Berkeley
• Camp Kesem Saint Rose