The three women entered the Camp Simcha dining room and barely looked around. The enormous dining room, capable of seating 400 campers and staff members simultaneously during the summer, had been decorated to look like an Italian piazza. The aroma of freshly cooked eggplant parmigiana, fish, and crepes filled the space. But these women were so deep in conversation they hardly noticed.

They might have been best friends from school, but in reality, they had met each other the day before, when Chai Lifeline’s innovative Family Adventure began. One of Chai Lifeline’s newest programs, Family Adventure helps alleviate the isolation felt by many when a child is diagnosed with cancer or another serious illness.

“Our goal is to use camp activities as a way of helping families connect to one another and to their own family members,” explained Rabbi Simcha Scholar, Chai Lifeline’s executive vice president. And it worked as planned: parents watched their children discard wariness for laughter and relaxed themselves. One by one, they let go of their stresses and fears, turned to each other and found the support they had been seeking.

Seeing children as children, not as patients, is critical for parents

Family Camp allowed parents and children to overwrite the pictures they have in their minds of children suffering with images of fun and games. They were encouraged to don costumes from Camp Simcha’s expansive costume shop and to participate in the full range of activities. They divided into teams and propelled themselves on skateboards during games of Human Hungry Hippos. Parents and children worked side by side making candles and mosaics during arts workshops. Everyone cheered as one by one, parents and children propelled themselves down Chai Lifeline’s famous zip line.

“Way to go Michal!” one mother yelled. “On the zip line with IV antibiotics and a port!”

Later, at lunch, the children serenaded one another on the “bridge” that spanned a canal complete with gondola and singing gondolier. Brothers and sisters, delighting in the attention and love of Camp Simcha counselors, sang and danced on the bridge. One by one, parents joined in, taking pictures and swaying to the music. Everyone was smiling and laughing. For that moment, all was right with the world. The three mothers, strangers less than 24 hours before, looked as they must have looked before cancer invaded their lives.

After lunch, parents had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Cheryl Book, Chai Lifeline’s director of clinical and family services. Boxes of tissues were passed even as Dr. Book reassured them.

“Life changed the minute the doctor said, ‘I’m sorry. Your child has cancer,’” she agreed.

A mother ruefully laughed, “He didn’t say ‘I’m sorry.’ He just said that he had a plan.” The others smiled sadly. It was true for all of them.

But for two days, the “plans” were forgotten. Families had the glorious experience of feeling normal, watching their children play and relaxing with other families.

“My son hasn’t run around like this since he got sick,” one father confessed. “It’s taken Chai Lifeline and Family Adventure to bring back his laughter.”

“Every family deserves moments like these,” said Rabbi Mordechai Gobioff, Chai Lifeline’s director of client services, national. “When illness takes them away, our mission is to give them back.”

Photo credit: Uri Arnson

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)