 |
MAKING MAGIC: 2004 graduate
Jason Castellanos hugs two of his campers: Elias
Papadopoulos (left) and Joey Raffa.
Michael Bernstein |
Colin Glaes was
in third grade when he heard the news: his mother had
breast cancer. For the next two years, with her job
as a code enforcement officer for the Palo Alto Police
Department on hold, Colin’s mom Judy Glaes went
through round after exhausting round of surgery, radiation
and chemotherapy. It was a tough way for Colin to grow
up. Yet each summer there was one bright spot.
Shortly after Judy’s diagnosis, a Stanford Hospital
social worker told the family about Camp Kesem, a project
initiated in 2000 by undergraduates in Hillel, the umbrella
organization for Jewish student groups on campus. Kesem—which
means “magic” in Hebrew—is a free,
nonsectarian camp open to any child age 6 to 14 whose
parent is in treatment, in remission or has died from
cancer. In addition to giving the campers a fun week
away from the worries of home, the program lets them
bond with others in the same boat.
Colin, now 13 and an accomplished woodwind player in
his middle school band, has been to Camp Kesem four
summers in a row. His mother’s cancer is now in
remission. “At first I was nervous, but when it
was over I didn’t want to leave,” Colin
recalls of his first camp experience. “With the
other kids, you can talk with them—like, you can
feel free to say stuff about cancer.” The Stanford
student volunteer counselors, he adds, “are the
best that ever walked the planet.”
In many ways, Kesem provides a typical summer idyll.
This year’s program, located in the rolling hills
north of the Russian River, included the standard boisterous
camp songs, lanyard weaving, tie-dyeing, swimming, hiking
and a ropes course. At other times, though, the 86 campers
had opportunities to reflect on the struggles going
on at home. During nightly “cabin chats,”
counselors gently encouraged the children to discuss
their feelings about cancer and life in general. One
day the camp held an optional memorial service for children
who had lost a parent. Another service was designed
to comfort those whose parents are fighting cancer or
are in remission.
Freshman Galen Thompson was one of 49 Stanford students
who volunteered as counselors at Camp Kesem this past
summer. He was so moved by the experience—which
included 40 hours of training by Stanford experts on
grief—he’s now considering a career that
involves children. “The kids definitely left their
mark on me,” notes Thompson, a Stanford soccer
player who is thinking of majoring in religious studies.
“They just want to be kids, yet they deal with
stuff you’d think would be impossible to deal
with.”
One 14-year-old camper’s mother died this year
on the last day of camp. “There were four kids
in her group, and they circled her with hugs,”
recalls Camp Kesem project coordinator Debbie Sadow,
whose father had stomach cancer when she was a teen.
“The great thing about this camp is that it helps
kids to see that life goes on.”
Funding for Kesem’s $130,000 annual budget relies
entirely on donations by individuals, corporations and
foundations. Yet the Stanford program has been so successful
that students have started four other Camp Kesems across
the country—at Duke, Northwestern, Notre Dame
and UC-San Diego—serving nearly 200 children in
all. Judy Glaes, for one, couldn’t be happier
about it. “Camp Kesem has not just touched Colin’s
heart, it has touched mine,” she explains. “He
knows and he has seen that life can be happy even after
the death of a parent.” And that, she says, “is
some gift.”
 |
|
|
