It was campfire night at Camp Kesem, and the campers were rowdy. The counselors were clearly prepared: some entertained the campers and some manned an impressive assembly line for S’more production. The August night was lit by the stars, and the air was filled with—well, smoke. But as I watched from the sidelines, it was the giggles, camp songs and outright laughter that registered with me. The campers (80 kids between the ages of 6 -16) had arrived only three days earlier, many for the first time. And yet the connection the campers felt to each other and their counselors was palpable.

Camp Kesem is a national organization that provides a free one-week summer camp for children whose parents have, or had, a cancer diagnosis. Founded at Stanford University in 2000, Camp Kesem has expanded to more than 100 chapters located at colleges throughout the country. In 2017 alone, more than 7,300 children attended one of Kesem’s camps. Each chapter has an executive team of college students who, along with dozens of volunteers, plan, organize, raise funds and execute each week-long camp adventure.

Katie Czech volunteered for Camp Kesem GW all four years she attended George Washington University, and came back the summer after her graduation. The GW chapter was started in 2008. Since then, it has grown. “In 2016, we started offering two sessions of camp,” she said. That translates to providing a camp experience to a total of 123 campers in 2017, 90 of whom were veterans from earlier years.

When asked about what motivated her to take on this particular service opportunity in college, Katie said, “I could tell Camp Kesem would make a lasting impact. The kids look forward to this every year, and camp becomes a second family to many of them.” Katie was camp director for her last two years at GW, a job that often meant an additional 30-40 hours of work a week during the school year. But she has no regrets. “Kesem brings out the best in everyone,” she says. “We don’t create the magic of Camp Kesem; the campers do that. But we create the space, and watching that all unfold…is pretty amazing.”

I’d have to agree with Katie’s assessment. For the last two summers, I’ve had the privilege of volunteering as a mental health professional at the Camp Kesem GW chapter (each camp has a professional staff that includes one mental health practitioner and two nurses). And I’ve had the opportunity to see the powerful connections created during this one special week. In fact, if there is a theme at Camp Kesem, I think perhaps connection is at the heart of it.

Those of us who work in the world of cancer support know that sometimes, the children of cancer patients get lost in the shuffle. Diagnosis, treatment and, sometimes, progression and recurrence, each add a layer of complexity to the lives of patients and their families. Kids struggle with the worries and fears that go along with having a parent with a cancer diagnosis. Even worse, they sometimes don’t like to talk about these feelings because they don’t want to worry their parents; and this can lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness. In addition to all of this, kids don’t like the idea of being “different” from everyone else. And few things make you feel as different as having a parent who is sick or dying. But at Kesem, because every child has a parent with cancer, that identifier is dropped out of the equation. For one week, they are simply kids.

Camp activities include swimming, arts and crafts, outdoor adventures and games, with the campers staying within their age-specific units for most of these activities. There are also campwide activities that include the campfire night, a talent show and the campers’ favorite, messy games, which can be hard to describe but lots of fun to watch. Each night, there’s a cabin chat, led by the unit leaders and counselors. These chats offer opportunities for the campers to share their stories, bond with each other through shared experience and learn they are not alone in what they are feeling. Cabin chats are a sacred part of the Camp Kesem experience. Campers can give voice to the fears that are too scary to talk about elsewhere. Surrounded by people who care, and most importantly, people who understand, kids at Camp Kesem know they are safe in this space.

So, they keep coming back. “We have more than an 85 percent retention rate,” Katie tells me. Kids come back year after year, some graduating from camper to counselor-in-training (the designation for anyone who meets the eligibility criteria and is aged 17 or 18). Then some go on to college, where they start (or join) a different Camp Kesem chapter. “We actually had a camper who graduated in 2015, then kick-started a chapter at her college,” Katie tells me. Clearly, the assumption she made all those years ago was correct—Camp Kesem does have a lasting impact.

A camper’s mom summed this up beautifully on the last day of camp. “You have to understand,” she told the camp nurse, “this is a kid who didn’t smile when I first brought her here.” The camper’s dad had died from lymphoma when she was 10. Now 14, she’s a veteran at Camp Kesem, and plans to be back again next year. “Camp Kesem gave me back my daughter’s smile.” Endorsements just don’t get any better than that.