A Thank You From One of Our Parents (2006 Camp)

I would like to thank you and everyone else from the bottom of my heart for a job well done this year at camp.  Gunner and McKay had a blast.

For Gunner, it was great for him to be around other kids who really knew what it was like having cancer.  He was normal there.  Gunner loved every minute of camp.  He loved all the activities, the friendships, and just knowing that people cared about him.  The very first thing he said to me after leaving the bus was, “Mom, how much longer until camp again?”  “I really don’t think I can wait until next year.”

McKay loved camp too.  I think it was good for her to see kids who have battled and won over this disease.  We have known many kids from the hospital that have lost their battle and from that she had been terrified for Gunner.  These kids gave her proof that they do survive.  She has only talked about camp and has told every story there is to tell. 

Living with cancer is like trying to concentrate with the radio on...even on the good days, it’s a dull noise in the background which never goes away.  But without this scary, stomach churning, mind numbing roller coaster, I might never have learned the true meaning of the words love, compassion, charity, generosity, selflessness, gratitude, endurance, strength, faith and most importantly hope.  These are all things you and your staff give these kids and their families.   

You would be delighted to know that on Gunners’ second day of school each child was asked to bring in very special things to school that day.  Gunner took his camp t-shirt and his photo album of camp.  Knowing how much your camp means to him brings tears to my eyes.   

For both of them this camp was life changing.  This past year has been hard on our family, but you have given my kids something to love again.  Something to look forward to and be excited about.  For that, my family is truly thankful.  To know that this is something that meant the world to him and was very special.  So thanks again for doing what you do for these kids and their families.  Not only was it a week of fun, it was also a lifetime of memories.   

Once again, thanks from the bottom of my heart.

Kim Murphy

Gunner and McKay’s Mom

Gunner diagnosed 05/2005 with ALL 

I absolutely loved my experience as a companion at Camp Quality!

After conquering cancer myself at the age of 21, I know first hand what the battle involves for the patient and their family.

I found the goals of Camp Quality to be ones I believed strongly in. Going through something traumatic can force a young person to grow up and mature much faster than their peers.

Camp gives these kids a chance to just be kids again. It also gives them the chance to be around other kids who are going through the same things that they are.

An illness in the family is both emotionally draining for the entire family as well as financially. Giving these kids a chance for a week of fun-filled activities, away from the chaotic routine of hospitals and doctors, is priceless.

I had the opportunity to watch a five-year old little girl rush to each activity with laughter and a grin from ear to ear. I feel most rewarded by my experience when I think of her smile, her perfectly coordinated outfits, and her tiny little pigtails.

It seems like just yesterday I was waking early to help get her ready for the day; the crafts we would make, the big fish she would catch, or playing games together at the pool. I also think of all she has been through and how much she deserves to be a little girl again.

I urge anyone that can help to fund this experience in anyway or volunteer their time to do so. Please help us in continuing the Camp Quality tradition of “Letting Kids with Cancer be Kids Again.” 

Clara Holland, Companion 2003

This past summer I had the opportunity to be a companion to a girl named Ally. 

This experience was beneficial to both Ally and myself.

For one week, I got to hang out with a girl nicknamed "screamer" the previous year, because she was afraid of fish. But this last summer, she became known for her great ability to fish, out-fishing all the guys and being proud of it. 

This camp, Camp Quality, was something that she looks forward to every year. It is the highlight of her year. The camp gave her and all of the other campers, a sense of "freedom" and "individuality."

There were many activities that she was able to pick from, and as long as it wasn't dangerous, her wish was granted. There was also a lot of outside help from various people that enabled her to enjoy a bird show, strong man competition, and many other events.

Not only did I see a glued smile on her face throughout the week, but that same smile was on every kid there. This camp made each one of them feel like the most important person in the world.

Everyone was so helpful and energetic. It is something I hope to participate in every year, and I know that the campers love to participate in it every year that they can.

Briana Smith, Companion

Camp Quality has been an awesome experience for both of my children and myself.

It allowed me some time for myself, which being a single mother with a terminally ill son, is definitely needed!! 

My other son has also attended the camp and loves it. He has a form of cerebral palsy in his legs and has always felt different. Camp Quality has definitely helped him feel like he belongs in this world and is an important person no matter what his disability!! 

Malachi loves attending camp and is already talking about when camp is this year. He has definitely had an advantage because before he went to camp he did not know any other kids that have terminal illness. He has aplastic anemia and has fought for his life for over 5 years now. He is also a teenager and struggles with others treating him differently. 

I am forever grateful to the people that help put Camp Quality on, help with the financial support, and come and see my children while at camp. You have given both of my boys great joy and fulfilled some dreams that I could never afford to do on a single parent income. Thank you very much.

Patricia Smith, Malachi and Malcolm's mother

I have always tried to volunteer time as much as possible from helping fix up homes for people who could not afford it in Pittsburgh to helping rebuild a burnt church on the Blackfoot Indian range in Montana, but none of those experiences have given me the joy of seeing the faces of the kids at Camp Quality.

These kids, who spend most of their young lives trying to get from school to the hospital for treatments and spend as much time thinking about their illness as most kids spend playing with friends, are transformed for the week at camp to carefree fun loving kids. It is almost as if some of them truly forget they are sick.

The fact that they are with a group of people who all have gone through similar things as they are or have or will, not only allows them the ability to talk and ask questions but it lets them let down their guard. 

I saw my mom go through Chemotherapy and was amazed at how a 49 year old woman handled the stress and effects of this treatment, but to see how a pre-teen or teenager handles this stress while going through the normal events of that age is amazing.

The kids are able to laugh and play and with most of them, at least for that week, you would never know they were anything but healthy. 

I can not imagine the choice a parent must make to tell their son or daughter they cannot go to a summer camp with their friends from school, it must be unbelievably tough for a parent to be able to let go of their child, and place them and their health in the hands of someone they don't know.

The thing is with a place like Camp Quality a lot of that stress is taken out of the picture for parents. The staff is packed with people who know how to treat the special problems that can occur at camp with these special campers. Best of all there is a companion with each and every camper to keep an eye on them and make sure they are ok throughout the week. 

This camp offers the campers who attend the opportunity to do so many fun things like, swimming, fishing, crafts, fellowship, learning (the fun kind) and best of all plenty of free time to decide what they want to do.

The communities show so much support by bringing Harley-Davidson Motorcycles and Corvettes for the kids to see, the kids get to watch animals and magicians and do a talent show. Worlds of Fun is one of the favorites by many of the campers and is a highlight of the week. Needless to say the week is packed with so many things for the campers to do they are bound to all but forget about their illnesses. 

The list of organizations and companies that help support Camp Quality is amazing and it is so wonderful to see so many groups getting involved in such a worthy cause. 

I plan on being involved with Camp Quality for many years to come and encourage people I know to do the same. 

Times are tough and for some of us what we can give is our time and love, for those who can the money is what keeps the camp available to so many kids who need it so bad.

An organization like this only exists because of the generosity of so many people. From the wonderful leaders to the people who donate money that keep it running.

I encourage anyone who can to donate whatever they can and I can ensure you that every little thing is appreciated by so many people that you will never know how grateful they are. 

T. R. Hoefle, Companion 2003

Camp Quality was the most rewarding experience that I have ever had the pleasure of being a part. 

The children were all extremely appreciative of everything I did, as was I appreciative of everything they did for me. 

I thought coming in it might be hard to see suffering children, but once I was there, I forgot the kids were even sick.

Brandon Schartz, Companion 2003

This is not a sad place
Camp Quality provides a haven for youngsters with cancer
By Su Bacon, Special to The Kansas City Star 8/13/98

Since the first tumor appeared four years ago this month, Jason Sherman had endured chemotherapy, radiation treatments, transplants and surgeries. The Smithville teen-ager had spent weeks in a hospital bed and in isolation at his home.

What helped Jason face his illness the most was the one week every summer he spent away from hospitals doctors, blood tests and transfusions. It was the one time Jason could be a typical teen having fun at camp.

His camp was Camp Quality, a camping experience in Excelsior Spring for children with cancer. It was there Jason spent the last week of his life.

Jason, who had bone cancer, died Monday. He was 15. "Camp gives me a break from doctors," Jason had said. "I can get away and be like I was before I had cancer."

His mother. Dawn Sherman, said camp was important to Jason.

"Jason had a wonderful time," she said. From August 2-7, Jason was one of 47 youngsters in different stages of cancer who sang songs, made crafts, took a hot air balloon ride, talked, giggled - and were children again.

They didn't have to wear hairpieces or hats to cover bald spots caused by chemotherapy. They didn't have to be self-conscious about wheelchairs or amputated limbs.

Campers and some of their brothers and sisters shared six days in the pastoral peace of rural Ray County.

Campers ranged in age from 5 to 17. They came from all over the metropolitan area and stayed in dorm rooms on the grounds of Camp Doniphan, a church camp on the eastern edge of Excelsior Springs.

"They are surrounded by other kids who have been through the same thing," said Evelyn Misner, a retired remedial reading teacher from Gladstone and a camp volunteer.

Misner was one of the adults who served as companions for the campers. Each child was paired with a volunteer companion for the duration of the camp. Misner's camper was an 8-year-old girl who was diagnosed with a brain tumor at 2 1/2 months. The cancer was in remission, Misner said.

Jason was paired with George Rishmany, a Kansas City pharmacist. Like the other companions, Rishmany provided personal attention and care to Jason. To participate in some of the activities, for example, Rishmany drove Jason in a golf cart because walking was hard for the teen-ager.

Jason had to wear braces on his lower legs because they have been weakened by chemotherapy. He also lost a lung during radiation therapy.

The night before the campers were scheduled to leave for Camp Quality, Jason had been rushed to the emergency room of the University of Kansas Medical Center for a drug reaction.

"I thought I might miss camp and I was really upset," Jason had said.

Although Jason missed the bus ride with the other campers, his parents took him to camp later.

Camp Quality is where Jason found renewed energy to fight the cancer. "I know a lot of kids who have gone to Camp Quality and they're now cured," Jason had said. "It's a waiting game to me, I don't give up easily."

Jason returned home at the end of camp on Friday.

He was rushed to the emergency room at the KU Medical Center with breathing problems on Monday.

Jason had been undergoing chemotherapy in pill form. For campers needing treatments, schedules are adjusted to allow them to attend camp.

Jason and the other campers were guests of Camp Quality. There is no charge to the families of the campers.

Brothers and sisters of the children battling cancer also are invited.

"Their lives are difficult, too, and family resources may be limited," said Reed Oltvedt of Kansas City, North. Oltvedt has been a companion at the camp for three years. This year, he was paired with a boy whose brother had cancer. 

In addition to the fun of camping, the siblings get full-time personal attention from their companions.

"A lot of times the siblings feel like they're being ignored," said Tobi Leuthardt, a volunteer from Smithville. "The sick child is the one who gets the toys and the phone calls. Here, they have their own companions and this is their week, too."

Leuthardt, 24, just graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City with a bachelor's degree in history. Volunteering for a week at the camp was his chance to "give back," Leuthardt said.

He was the companion of a boy whose sister had cancer.

Camp Quality is a nonprofit organization with more than 50 locations worldwide. The camp is funded through donations from the community and is staffed entirely-by volunteers. It takes between $30,000 to $40,000 in donations to offer a week of camping.

Last year, Dione Hedrick, a registered nurse at Bethany Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., gave up a week of her vacation time to serve as camp nurse. This year. The Bethany Medical Center Auxiliary awarded a $2,400 grant to Camp Quality and Hedrick returned to work as camp registrar and visit friends.

"I wanted to work at the camp because I've always had a love for children and it's a great feeling to be a part of this," Hedrick said. Hedrick is getting married in October to the camp treasurer, Rex Vanatta. They met at Camp Quality last year.

"This is not a sad place," said Sandy Evans, media coordinator and cancer survivor. "This is a place to smile and laugh. Even if bodies can't heal, a lot of emotional healing takes place."

For more information about Camp Quality, call (816) 561-5861.


Camp with a Heart
by Amanda (camper)

Your sight lies far beyond the eyes
A remarkable ability to visualize

With keen remarkable and sensory touch
Their hands reach out to see so much

How could they know just how to smile
Without a model to look at for a while

We witness your faces begin to light 
As you help a child who has eyes without sight

We learn from them, both you and me
As we help a child whose eyes can't see

What a privilege it has been to play a small part 
in the Lake Doniphan Kids Camp - The Camp with a Heart!

Find a cause and experience a blessing 
By Brian Ghafari-Naraghi, RN, BSN July 2003

In August I will take on the most challenging position of my nursing career. I will be a camp nurse at Camp Quality-Greater Kansas City, just outside of Excelsior Springs, Mo. This is a camp that offers very different challenges from my regular nursing work.

Camp Quality-Greater Kansas City began 10 years ago with 30 campers and today has more than 50 campers. Camp Quality is a weeklong camping experience and year-round support system for children with cancer or who have had cancer in the past, and their families. Each child is assigned a companion who provides support and encouragement during the week. The campers and their companions spend 24 hours a day together, which usually results in friendships that last long after camp has ended.

The goal at Camp Quality is to provide these awesome children with the opportunity to experience new and exciting activities and allow them to just be kids again. Camp Quality offers the opportunity to make new friends and create fun memories that will sustain the children in the weeks and months ahead as they continue their medical treatments.

As an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization, Camp Quality is provided without cost to our campers and their families. The camp depends totally on the generosity of individuals, businesses, organizations and foundations acting out of concern for these children.

The first camp was founded and established in 1983 in Sydney, Australia. There are now more than 55 locations worldwide in 19 countries. The United States has 14 camps for children with cancer located in 11 states.

Camp Quality is one of the best things I have ever done in my career. The work is very challenging, but rewarding. I get the chance to see the power of the human spirit and a positive attitude working through these kids who are facing uncertain consequences. These children have faced or are currently facing some of the most difficult times of their young lives.

The camp is staffed with two to three registered nurses who volunteer their time and talents to provide the best care for these children so they may have a normal camp experience. Duties range from giving medications, to cleaning scraped knees to just comforting a child who is homesick.

I would encourage all nurses to volunteer and become active in their communities. Although I am a cheerleader for Camp Quality, I would encourage everyone to find a cause that utilizes their time and talents. I hope that each of you can experience this type of blessing at least once in your lives.

Brian Ghafari-Naraghi, RN, BSN, is director of clinical services at NorthCare Hospice & Palliative Care Inc. in North Kansas City, Mo. You can contact him at bghafari@kumc.edu.
©Kansas City Nursing News 2003

Do people die from cancer, Mommy?
by Andy's Mom

"Do people die from cancer, Mommy?"

My heart shattered at the sound of the question. "Some do - many don't. Why?"

"One of the kids at school asked me. Just the old people die though, right Mommy?"

"The people who don't die, Andy, are the ones who see their doctors, take their medicine, go for tests and treatments"

"I do all that" he said with a smile and off he went back to the playground.

Since that day two months ago, seven year old Andy reminds me several times a day, not to forget his medicine. It has been a very tough year for him. Second grade is the time when the awareness of differences seems to happen and this year - the funnel ball champ ain't champ anymore. The guy who used to swing the highest, falls off the swing with regularity and kids are teasing because he can't speak the same as they do.

Andy is a fighter. He's been battling brain cancer since he was two and a half years old. Surgery, radiation, a series of strokes and Andy is still every inch a regular kid. This year has been a very hard one - Andy now has a second kind of brain cancer and is losing his vision. This spring he started falling asleep during class, then he started falling asleep even before the morning bell rang - it seems the two block walk was too much for him.

But at Camp Quality, he's a super hero called Fartman! He joins in every game, every laugh, every pillow fight, and especially the talent show (from whence he got his nickname). 

All year long his treasured Camp Quality photo sits on the night table beside his bed and I have long since stopped arguing that he couldn't sleep with his Camp Quality log book under his pillow (I pretend not to notice the flashlight there too). It did take me a while though to realize that he'd always wear his Camp Quality shirt on hard days at school or hospital.

Andy's prognosis isn't good. Next year will be even harder but as I write this, Andy is back at Camp Quality. He comes home this afternoon - bubbly, energized and empowered...it is contagious.

Never wonder why you do this folks. I call you "living guardian angels of childhood joy."

Fishing allows illness to fade, kids to emerge
Camp Quality puts smiles back on faces
By BRENT FRAZEE The Kansas City Star

Karen Jones, a nurse at the University of Kansas Medical Center was watching the healing powers of Fishing at work.

Just days earlier, some of the children scrambling up and down the shore of Lake Doniphan near Excelsior Springs had been undergoing & horrendous cancer treatments, Jones said.

Radiation, chemotherapy, surgery, counseling for depression - things no child should be exposed to were an all-too-familiar part of their lives.

But earlier this week at a special summer camp, they were just ordinary kids.

They thrilled at the sight of a bobber going under, laughed when they caught fish, squirmed when they had to put a worm on, the hook and smiled when they posed for pictures with their catch.

And the significance of that scene wasn't lost on Jones and other nurses who were helping at Camp Quality, a camp for children with cancer.

"We don't get to see some o these kids smile too often," Jones said. "What they have to go through, it's tough.

"But they can come out here, and just forget about all that. When they get a fishing pole in their hands, they're just regular kids."

Dillon, an 8-year-old with an inoperable brain tumor, was one of those kids. Last names weren't provided by camp officials.

He stood on the shore and listened intently as Ed Fat Boy Powell, co-host of the fishing show on WDAF radio, gave instructions on the art of tricking fish.

They both stared at a brightly colored bobber that bounced in the waves. When that bobber went under, Powell shouted, "You've got him, Dillon! Reel!"

Dillon excitedly started to crank and didn't stop until he had dragged the small sunfish about five feet onto shore.

"Look what I got, Fat Boy," Dillon said. "That's a big one, right?"

Fat Boy laughed, then said, "Now you have to kiss him for good luck and toss him back."

Dillon squirmed, then planted a kiss on the bluegill's tiny mouth. A second later, he released the fish and was eager to get his line back in the water.

"I didn't catch one fish yesterday," Dillon said. "But I've caught 10 today. And they've all been big."

Dillon wasn't the only one finding success. Keylon shouted as he caught a big green sunfish. Little Christopher ran down a bank with his catch still attached to the hook. And many lined up to pose for pictures with their fish.

All the while, Fat Boy looked like the biggest kid of them all, with a steady stream of children following him to get help with casting, bailing hooks and unhooking fish.

"This gives me chicken skin," Powell said. "You know, goose bumps."

"It's great just to see these kids smile, to be happy. I love to fish, and I know what it can do for a person. You can see what it's doing for these kids.

"At camp last year, they were having such a great time out here fishing that they didn't want to go in for lunch. The people running camp brought sandwiches out.

"We were out there fishing for hours. No one wanted to quit."

Fat Boy can identify with that. The jovial, burly Garden City, Mo., man has fished for most of his life and jumped at the chance to teach the kids what the sport has to offer. 

He had plenty of help. Members of the Central States Bass Association also assisted, providing manpower and donating bait and fishing equipment The Southside Optimist Club put on a fishing derby for the children.

But fishing was only one of the activities the children enjoyed during the week-long summer camp that ends today. They also got to try canoeing and hiking, to ride trains and pose on motorcycles, to take rides in Corvette sports cars and to go on field trips.

"To allow a child with cancer to be a child again" - that's one of the stated goals of Camp Quality.

The camp was founded in 1983 in Sydney, Australia, and the program quickly grew. There are now more than 50 camps worldwide, including 14 in the United States.

The camps, which are financed by donations from surrounding communities, are run by a committee of volunteers. Children are recruited at hospitals and medical centers where they receive cancer treatments. Once they arrive at camp, they are paired with adult companions some of them cancer survivors themselves, who are at the child's side throughout the week.

Special precautions are taken to cater to the children's health needs. For example, a medical staff is on hand to give medication, shots and monitor conditions. And cleanliness is stressed, because some of the children have diminished immune systems as a result of cancer treatments.

But for the most part, the camp is all about showing a kid how to be a kid again.

"I call this a week of emotional healing," said Sandy Evans, the media coordinator for Camp Quality and a cancer survivor herself. "The nurses say that they've never seen some of these kids smile until they get up here to camp.

"Our camp is all about hope."

And hope abounds. Dillon, for example, received experimental radiation treatment for his brain tumor, and the procedure arrested the tumor's growth. He still receives shots, is monitored regularly and tires easily. But his able to function, for the most part, like a normal kid. 

Others in the group of almost 50 children at the camp also are in remission or in out-patient treatment

But there also are children who "tug at the heartstrings" of those involved, children who probably, won't survive to attend another camp.

"We had one 15-year-old boy; who was real sick but wanted to spend his last days at camp," Jones said. "On the last day we took him to the hospital, and he died there the following Monday.

"His goal had been to make to his 16th birthday so that he could get his driver's license, but he didn't make it."

Such heartbreak almost caused Jones to get out of nursing at one point.

"It was getting to me," she said. "We see kids die, and it's hard to take. This camp revitalizes me. It's therapy for the kids. But it's therapy for the nurses, too.

"We come up here and see these kids having a great time like they are today, out here fishing and it's great."

One of the kids, Christopher, couldn't agree more.

"I'm having a great time," said the 7-year-old Topeka boy, who has a brain tumor. "I think I could do this all day."

Christopher fidgeted, then cut the interview short.

"Who's going to put a worm on my hook?" he said. "I have to catch another fish."