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that co-sponsors Camp Fantastic with the National Institute of Health and the 4-H Center. Once touched by this special love, you never forget it.
All the children get special love from each other and from the volunteers, the 4-H Center staff, the doctors and nurses who use their vacations to come to Camp Fantastic. (“It’s not surprising at all when you think about it,” said a nurse, looking a little embarrassed at the notice of their contribution. “We work with a lot of these kids, and the only time we see them is when they’re in the hospital, suffering through some painful treatment. Here we’re all having fun. We need to see each other in this setting. They need it and we need it.”)
They all get special love but at every camp, there are a few children whose fortitude and spirit make them specially loved. This year, Jeremy was one of those children.
Jeremy came in a wheelchair bed, unable to move his left arm or his legs. He had recently undergone a traecheotomy and spoke barely in a whisper. He wasn’t sure he was going to like camp.
But by the time the dream week ended, he’d won the marksmanship award (he pulled the trigger and directed the counselor who aimed the gun). He’d been kissed three times by Madonna (an impersonator of the popular rock star but it made no difference to the kids; they were as delighted as if she’d been the real thing). His forehead pressed against a buddy’s, he’d bellowed out his favorite song: “I like bananas, coconuts and grapes, That’s why they call me Tarzan of the Apes.” Jeremy in his wheel chair had even led the Congo line of kids as they snaked around the dance floor, rockin’ and rollin’.
Jeremy proves the power of Camp Fantastic.
The program would be worthwhile if all it did was give these children a great week of fun with crafts, swimming, canoeing, horseback riding, campfire skits, shortsheeted bunks, whispered midnight talks and a summer crush. But it does much more. It gives them a better chance at life.
The medical profession is just beginning to realize the importance of attitude to the successful treatment of cancer. Doctors don’t yet know how determination to be cured works in affecting a cure; they just know that it can. They know that hope, optimism and the belief
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