A Turning Point Summer at Sunrise Day Camp

On Monday, June 23rd, Sunrise Day Camp—Greater Washington will welcome 70 or more children with cancer and their siblings to summer camp. For the 29 BEST days of summer, we’ll sing, laugh, play, create, and build the bonds that only summer camp can foster. I live all year long for these 29 days, and know I’m not alone.

I could speak to you for hours, days, and months about how important summer camp is for kids with cancer and those affected by their cancer. I have seen with my own eyes for 10 summers of my life how important this experience is to our campers. But I would really like to speak with you about a group that we don’t usually center in this conversation: their camp counselors.

I have 58 staff members this summer. 20 of them are returning for another summer of Sunrise (with five founding staff members who began with us in 2022). I am so thankful to these returning staff members, who bring with them so much love and institutional knowledge about our growing camp. I’m nearly buzzing with excitement for the 38 brand new staff members I have at camp who are about to embark on a life-changing experience. I know it’s life changing, because the experience they are about to have changed my life 20 summers ago.

In 2006, I had the opportunity to join the first ever staff of Sunrise Day Camp on Long Island, the flagship camp of the Sunrise Association. So many of the traditions we started that summer continue as the Sunrise Association enters its 20th summer offering free summer camp to children with cancer and their siblings. I spent 6 summers at Sunrise, during which I realized that my journey in life was to work with children. No one told me that there were summer camp jobs that lasted all year long, and so I became a teacher. This year, I completed my 15th year of teaching and though it hasn’t always been easy, I can’t imagine my life any other way. At this point, not even 40 years old, I have touched the lives of 1,500 kids, having the fortune to have been a small part of their story. I have been able to laugh with them, teach them, play with them, cry with them, and grow with them. It also allows me the freedom in the summertime to run Sunrise Day Camp (along with a few of my former 7th grade students!) There is no better job than the one I have.

So each summer I tell my new staff how excited I am to be part of their summer at Sunrise, because I know it will be a turning point in their lives. I tell them that from this point, there will always be “before I worked at Sunrise Day Camp, and after I worked at Sunrise Day Camp.” I am so excited for them to meet their campers tomorrow and make summer camp magic for the 29 best days of camp.

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