National Cancer Survivor Day

A year ago I wasn’t even aware there was a National Cancer Survivor Day and now it is a very important day in our lives and in the lives of so many of our friends.  Survivor Day is the first Sunday in June every year.  The Kids Cancer Care Foundation put on a Country Carnival at Camp Kindle.

We arrived just before 11 and were greeted by some great volunteers and some of the staff.  We reconnected with a few of the families we have met at other events.  Ryley and Corbin seemed to bond a little more this time and enjoyed spending time together before the program started.  They served up a huge BBQ for all the volunteers and families.  This weekend was their training weekend for all the volunteers so there were over 100 volunteers there.  They cooked up burgers, hot dogs and even veggie burgers with chips and salad.

After everyone was fed the activities started.  Our kids took off to the 2 lane racing bouncer right away.  After a few races they were off again to the big blow up that had a bunch of different ball games on each side.  Ryley really got a kick out of almost hitting me in the head with a plastic baseball.  One of the volunteers had built a photo booth for this event so we all went in and got dressed up and pushed the button to get our 4 photos.

We then headed over to the petting zoo.  Petting zoos are technically off limits to Karlee, but we made sure she used lots of hand sanitizer.  They had puppies and kittens so the more typical petting zoo animals were partially ignored.  The puppies were adorable, but they are going to end up as big dogs.  They had 3 horses that the kids got to feed.  Both of them enjoyed giving them oat and grass and anything else.  The horses were very gentle and good with the kids.  They also had a baby chick, some baby ducks and roosters.
 
One of the mother’s of a young cancer survivor was there doing face painting.  She was incredible.  Ryley and Karlee both had dragons painted on their face.  Dad even got a Camp Kindle bug painted on the back on his head!  We played some mini golf, ate some ice cream and went on more bouncers.  Mom and Dad even got in one of the bouncer races.  It was quickly determined that bouncers are designed for smaller kids as it was a lot of work for a big person to get from one end to the other.
 
There were a couple of special guests there to talk about hope and the difference that bonding with people can make.  It was a nice story and showed some very inspirational moments.  If you get a chance to check it out take a look at http://wrongwaytohope.com/

Survivor Day was a great celebration of beating cancer and showing what is possible with the right support.  We had a great time and enjoyed all the staff, volunteers and other families there!