Today, I had an interesting time with my Lions Club. We cooked and served lunch of hotdogs, hamburgers and cheeseburgers for 220 people. Every summer an organization called Camp Quality rents a full week at a Frankfort facility (Camp Manitoqua) entertaining kids with cancer. This is their twenty-fifth anniversary. Camp Quality is a nation-wide organization run 100 percent by volunteers. The Illinois Camp Quality serves Illinois, and part of Indiana. This year they served 77 kids with cancer, or kids in remission. Once a camper begins with the camp he is eligible to continue every year until he reaches age seventeen. Many of the campers become counselors and continue into their college years. Nationwide, there are seventeen Camp Quality’s operating.
Each camper has an assigned buddy who is older and who sticks to him like glue for the whole week. This is to prevent mishaps, and loneliness. Many of the newly diagnosed kids are on chemo-therapy when they arrive and continue to get the treatments. To do this, the camp has a complete medical staff of volunteer nurses and doctors to take care of medical issues. The entire week costs the camper zero. The entire operation, however costs upwards of two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars. All of this comes from donations from corporations, individuals, and clubs like ours.
The experience is lifting. One cannot come away without feeling a warm glow inside for having contributed to something good. All total ten Lions gave of their time to serve the community, it is what Lions do.
Filed under: Biography, family, health care, Lions Club, Warm and Fuzzy | Tagged: Camp Quality, Cancer, Kids, Lions |
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