Joe Moylan |
Mid-August, nearly. Back-to-school sales starting and summer camps ending. Friday is the last day of Camp Kids Are Kids Chicago.
Just as at camps everywhere, the last day of Camp Kids Are Kids Chicago will have songs and hugs and tears.
Though this is different than most summer camps for two reasons.
First, all 30 campers attending this week either have or had cancer.
"Most of them, fortunately, are on the good side of their therapy," said Dr. Charles Hemenway, a pediatric oncologist at Loyola University Medical Center, volunteering as the camp doctor. "They've largely completed, the worst is behind them."
The worst is behind second-year camper Joe Moylan, doing much better this year.
"I was bald," said the 14-year-old. "I was going through really hard times, going through treatment. It was amazing to do things like any kid could do."
Moylan joined other campers making strips of fresh pasta under the eye of trained chefs, a reminder of the second unusual aspect of this camp -- it is not held in some distant Michigan woods, but in the heart of the Chicago Loop, at the Palmer House Hilton.
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An uplifting start to the day; we seem to be surrounded by a sea of dread, and so reading a story like this means a lot. These kids are fighting cancer, and we need to keep fighting as well.
ReplyDeleteThat's an important reminder, Sandy. Thank you. We need to stay grounded.
DeleteMy generation is likely to think of the big C as the Grim Reaper inexorably whacking away at defenseless and presumably useless human beings, young and old. A peek at these kids and at Cub Anthony Rizzo, who not only survive but thrive after cancer treatment should help even us oldsters to reassess our presumptions.
ReplyDeletejohn