Students Share this Camp Kesem Volunteer Opportunity
Kesem is a nationwide community, driven by passionate college student leaders, that supports children through and beyond their parent’s cancer. Kesem’s flagship program, Camp Kesem, operates free summer camps for children who have been impacted by a parent’s cancer. Founded at Stanford University in 2000, Camp Kesem has since expanded to 116 chapters in 42 states across the country. Camp Kesem is a year-round support system We fundraise all year and have many exciting events that culminate into one weeklong, cost-free summer camp for these kids to just be kids. It’s empowering and inspiring, you really find a family in Kesem.
UM has around 130 active members on our campus. Involvement is what you make it; however, there is required training to be a counselor and attend camp, as well as a minimum of two street collections and you personally have to take the time to fundraise! That time commitment and how you spend it is all up to the individual. If someone wants to go above and beyond, they can join a number of committees that meet weekly or bi-weekly, attend any open forum e-board meetings, and come to every event we have on campus!
There are a number of different events held on and off-campus, all of which revolve around fundraising, bonding, or supporting the campers. The primary events that are held during the school year are the Make the Magic gala. This is a planned annual gala, created with the intention of fundraising and allowing community partners to get a taste of what camp is like (it takes $500 to send one kid to camp and we have a lot of campers). There are Friends and Family days, which happen on and off campus every semester to give campers and counselors a place they can see one another, play games, and catch up. Additionally, there are other fundraising days and events such as “Kooky Kesem Week” and other on-campus events to engage and support our camper families, such as organizing tickets for camper families to attend a UM basketball game.
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