Counselor Reaches Out to Ailing Campers : It Wasn’t Long Ago That He Was Young Cancer Patient Too

For 19-year-old Glenn Levine, summer camp is more than a yearly affair. For him it is a way of helping children with cancer enjoy a week of normal childhood activities.

Levine, a volunteer at Camp Reach for the Sky, had been a camper at the resident camp for teen-agers with cancer, but this year he was too old to attend. Realizing how much the camp meant to him, Levine decided to become a counselor for the 45 children attending the day camp.

Both camps are sponsored by the American Cancer Society, and, although the one for the 4-to 8-year-olds takes place in the Girl Scout center in Balboa Park, the one for teen-agers is held in a YMCA facility in the mountains near Julian.

The younger children attending the weeklong day camp either suffer cancer or are in remission, but at the campsite they can find refuge from their ordeal of dealing with hospitals and doctors.

Under constant, onsite medical supervision and with the help of 32 volunteers coordinated by the camp’s director, Barbara Wiggins, the children are able to have fun the way healthy children would in a regular summer camp.

Levine, who had a brain tumor when he was 3, said he wishes he had known about the camp for the younger children because the interaction between the youngsters in the camp helps build up their self-esteem.

“It gives them something to look forward to,” he said. “Here they can be themselves. Kids here are more equal so it’s better because people don’t stare.”

Wiggins agreed that the camp gives children a freedom that their normal lives do not, because during camp week they do not have to worry about medication; they just have to worry about swimming, crafts and games.

“It gives these kids a normal childhood experience, and for some of them it is important because they can’t go to a normal camp,” she said.

Although Wiggins had reservations about being camp director when the camp first opened six years ago, she says she realizes now that it has changed her outlook on life: “As an adult I’ve faced the idea of death. I can confront it by seeing these kids who make the best of their lives.”

Most of the children are returning campers, and this year one of them came from as far as Las Vegas to attend. The children receive treatment at Children’s Hospital, Kaiser Permanente Hospital, UC San Diego Medical Center and the Navy Hospital in Balboa Park.

The camp also provides the children with some decision-making power, which is important to build up their confidence, Wiggins said. They are allowed to decide their groups’ names, the activities they will have for parents’ day on Saturday, and what flavor of ice cream they would like to make.

The theme of the day-camp changes every year. This year’s theme was space, and the campers were able to learn about space by going on a field trip to General Dynamics and building spaceships with paper plates and plastic beads.

Parents agreed the camp is a good way for children to experience an environment different from hospitals and doctors’ offices.

Phil Salzwedel, whose son, Tom, has attended the camp four times, said he did not feel comfortable sending his 6-year-old to a regular camp because he might need medical attention. Tom has leukemia. His father says the camp can give him the confidence to do normal childhood things.

Joesie Bartek, 5, is attending her second Camp Reach for the Sky, and said she enjoys swimming and crafts. She has an angel collection and when one of her friends has to go to the hospital she will give them an angel to watch over them.

Her mother, Cindy, said the camp allows Joesie to interact with other children outside a hospital. It gives the girl, suffering from acute lymphocytic leukemia, something besides medicine and death to think and talk about.