Camp Kesem, a free weeklong overnight camp for the children of adult victims of cancer, will come to Champaign-Urbana for the first time in August 2006.

The camp is organized by the University chapter of Camp Kesem, a new organization on campus. The group is modeled after the first Camp Kesem, which began as a volunteer project at Stanford University in 2000.

Co-directors Ali Bernstein, sophomore in FAA, and Jill Pessis, senior in ALS, started the University organization.

“We both had personal experiences with cancer and it had affected people we knew,” Bernstein said about their decision to help start a branch of the camp at the University.

More than 1.2 million Americans develop cancer each year, according to the National Institute of Health. A new cancer is diagnosed every 30 seconds in the United States. Since 1990, nearly 15 million new cancer cases have been diagnosed.

Iris Rave, founder and executive director of Camp Kesem National, said the program started five years ago as a project of the Hillel Foundation at the Stanford University Campus. At the time, Rave was working at the foundation as a staff member. The project is no longer formally affiliated with the Hillel Foundation.

“In the early stages, we had four students and myself working on a needs assessment study in Northern California,” Rave said. “And after talking to an oncologist who worked with a camp for kids with cancer, we found that there was a group of kids who’s parents have, had or died of cancer and that there was not a lot out there for those kids.”

Children whose parents are victims of cancer often experience a shift in family structure and can feel isolated or even neglected, Rave said.

Kenda Swartz, an art therapist and member of the advisory board at Camp Kesem National, said a parent’s battle with cancer could result in emotional, psychological and behavioral changes in their children.

Children may withdraw from their families and friends or may act out in school or on the playground, Swartz said. They may try to assume the roles their parents traditionally held or try to protect their parents from sadness by not expressing their emotions. This type of behavior is often seen to a greater extent if the parent dies.

“The pent-up energy and stress that can result in problems down the road, including depression or acting out,” Swartz said.

Children can also experience embarrassment, isolation and become egocentric, asking questions about what will happen to them because of the parent’s illness, Swartz said. Fear and anxiety result because the children do not understand the disease – that it is not contagious, nor do they understand the treatment of the illness.

“No one is free from that (fear), not even the little ones,” Swartz said. “Sometimes embarrassment or ego-centrism is the only tangible way that these children have to articulate their feelings of worry or fear.”

Having the opportunity to interact with other children who have had a parent with cancer is extremely important for the children, Swartz said.

“The isolation that can occur from family diagnosis can be extremely traumatic,” Swartz said, adding that children begin to see themselves as different and separate from their peers.

“Having a week of camp gives these kids the opportunity to have a week of freedom – freedom from the chaos at home, the direct worry of seeing changes in the parent’s condition or of slight neglect because the ill parent has become the focus of attention,” Swartz said. “It’s really amazing.”

Swartz said the camp offers children the opportunity to have a safe place to express their emotions, gain self-empowerment, enhance their self-esteem, and learn methods for coping with their situation and emotions.

Camp Kesem at Stanford held its first summer session for 37 campers, age 6-13, in June 2001.

In 2002, Camp Kesem National was founded to help spread camps run by different universities around the country. Today, 10 different universities host camps. The total number of children that have been served by Camp Kesem camps nationwide since 2001 is 714.

The camp is a non-for-profit organization and is free to all campers. It is funded by personal donations and fundraising and is run by volunteer student counselors from the University.

This year, the University’s Camp Kesem will host 40 children and is still recruiting campers and student counselors from the University.

“Most of the focus of this program goes to the children, but the true unsung heroes are the students who put on these camps,” Rave said. “They don’t get paid; there is no academic credit. I don’t think they get as much attention as they deserve, and I think they deserve a lot of credit.”