A couple of weeks ago, Virginia, Kayleigh and I were lucky enough to attend an all-day event at Sunrise Day Camp, thanks to the great efforts of Tina Jordan at the AAP. The incredibly dedicated camp staff all worked very hard, but with obvious pleasure, to provide a safe, fun and welcoming summer camp experience to hundreds of children diagnosed with cancer, and their siblings.
We brought along two wonderful authors, Kenneth C. Davis and Greg Foley, and they hosted stellar events! Ken played his famous trivia game with a large group of the older kids, and the competition got pretty intense. I felt mildly lame due to the embarrassing number of history questions I didn't know the answers to (although that seemed to be a theme among the adults, but those kids were rockstars!).
Greg worked with younger children and was so engaging and fun…he read them his book, Purple Little Bird, and then had all the necessary crafts for the kids to create their own Purple (Green/Yellow/Red/Orange), Little worlds. They loved it! And it was great to see how creative and individual each child's project was.
We were then given a tour of the facility, including a peek into their amazing and gorgeous tree house, and learned about the history of the camp. They stress the desire to give all their campers the feeling of normalcy in this environment, and it is evident on every smiling, happy face how successful the staff are at achieving this. Thank you to everyone who helped make this day possible!!
– Annie