VBS and SunRise and SunMaker Camps

The last 2 weeks of July were once again busy for the kids and Jennifer.

The week of the 18th through 22nd the kids were in a Vacation Bible School (VBS) at a local Church that our Church had partnered with.  After the Tour For Kids Jennifer and her friend Vivianna headed over the Peace Lutheran Church to set up for PandaMania.  They were going to teach the kindergarten kids from 9-noon each day for the next week. 

Each morning for all 3 of them were out of the house just after 8am and didn’t get home until almost 1 each day.  The kids has a great time learning about Jesus and the Bible and coming home and sharing their lessons with us.  Ryley seems to be starting to understand; he is remembering the stories and maybe even starting to apply some of the lessons he is learning.  Karlee is still at the stage where she enjoys meeting other people and making new friends, but she is understanding some of the lessons too.

Jennifer realized that limiting Karlee’s exposure to sick kids is a lot harder when she is volunteering.  When she is leading the class it is very hard to pull Karlee out when she gets to stay.  She also found out the people will send their sick kids to just about anything and don’t have any regard for the other kids and teachers.  This is going to impact some of Jennifer’s ability to volunteer with some of the activities Karlee is in this coming year.  Fortunately Karlee didn’t catch anything during the week.

Thursday night they had a bring your parents night when we all went and watched each group do a little presentation.  After that they showed us around the Church and showed us some of the stuff they had done.  The kids really enjoyed VBS and I think we will send them back again next year.

The next week was camp week for both kids.  Monday morning we headed to the Glamorgan community association to be there just before 9am.  When we got there we took Karlee into the community centre and she disappeared very quickly.  She knew a couple of other kids there and at least one of the volunteers so she didn’t have any issues leaving us.  Ryley had to wait until 10am for his bus to leave to take him to Camp Kindle.  He quickly found a few other guys his age to go and play with on the playground while we got him registered and checked in.  It was a very enjoyable morning chatting with all the other parents while we waited.  There really is a special bond between all the parents that have gone through cancer.  It is also very uplifting to hear about all the kids that have beat cancer and are now happy, normal kids.  This time I knew how Ryley would react to the bus getting ready to leave so we called him over before they started to line up and said goodbye to him.  Again he had no issues leaving us and heading out to Camp Kindle.  Jennifer went back at 3pm to pick up Karlee after her first day and she just loved it.  They had a busy and fun program set up for them the entire week.  She had such exciting days that she fell asleep in the car on the way home every day!  She made a pair of little friends and they were inseparable all week!

Thursday morning when we dropped Karlee off we dropped her off with all her stuff to stay overnight at Camp Kindle.  After lunch they brought in the bus and loaded all the little kids up and headed out to camp.  This was kind of weird as it was the first time ever that both kids were out of the house overnight and we were both home.  We went out for a drink and some munchies and then went and saw Transformers 3 in 3D.  Thankfully we had a coupon for the movie so only paid the extra for 3D because we both would have been disappointed if we had paid full price to see that movie.

Friday morning we were out of the house fairly early and heading out to Camp Kindle to pick up Karlee.  We arrived about 10:30 and headed up to the main lodge even though we knew Karlee was at the music hall.  We didn’t want to interrupt anything they were doing so we thought we would go hang out with the other parents.  Of course Sharlene had other plans.  As soon as she saw us walking up the road she told Karlee we were coming so they waited and waited.  Due to the way the building is located you can watch us walk up, but when the road Ys you can not see it.  Finally they hopped in a golf cart and came up to see us.  Karlee was very happy to see us, where as Ryley was too busy playing to notice we were there.

We went down to the music hall with Karlee and found out she had a good, if little late, night.  They had a camp fire and she even managed to have supper, wait 2 hours, have chemo, wait another hour and then have snack.  Sharlene and the volunteers did an incredible job of making sure she was able to enjoy snack.  After the fire Ryley gave her a big hug before he headed up to bed and Karlee got to watch a movie.  She liked being with the big kids out at camp.  We joined everyone for lunch and then we said goodbye to Ryley and headed for Bergen. 

We spent the night in Bergen with Frances and Roland at their chalet and had a great night.  Karlee played with their dog (technically Amy’s dog) Jazz, got to drive Roland’s golf cart and went for a big walk around the estates.  We sat around the fire, drank some beer and had a great big dinner.  We were up early the next morning to go and get Ryley from Camp Kindle.

He had a great time and even got an award for the motivation he provided to another camper on the climbing wall.  Several of the volunteers and Ryley himself said he really enjoyed the dance this year and loved seeing DJ Fish again.  He made more new friends again and reconnected with some of the campers from last year.  Next year camp is going to be a new experience again with them undertaking $4 million in renovations.  The old dorm that is starting to fall down is being removed and they are building a new main lodge and another dorm.  There is going to be some very exciting changes including a new pool if everything works out correctly.

Tour For Kids

On Wednesday July 13th Kids Cancer Care put out an urgent request for volunteers to help with the Tour For Kids the upcoming weekend.  They had a miscommunication and were short 2 truck drivers and 2 riders for the 3 day bike ride through the Rockies.  Without really knowing what I was getting into I phoned Sharlene and got a few of the details and was assured I would have a great time.  After checking with Jennifer I agreed to give them a hand and spend a 3 day weekend driving.

Friday morning Candice picked me up just before 6am and we headed to Rock Point Church.  There were a bunch of people from KCC and several organizers from Coast to Coast Against Cancer from Toronto.  I was given a few t-shirts and then shown to my truck.  Sharon & Kristen from Toronto were the ones in the know and would be making sure we knew what we were doing all weekend.  We would be travelling in a 3 vehicle convoy all weekend with them leading the way in a car and then me driving the dry goods truck and Jay driving the refer with all the refrigerated goods.

We were on the road by 7:30 headed to the mountains.  We missed the starting point due to a missed turn, but headed to get gas and then off to the first rest stop to set up.  The long riders started just outside Banff on the 1A highway and headed to Lake Louise.  Basically we spent all weekend driving to the rest stops and unloading tables, chairs, huge signs, bike racks, food, water, Power Bars and everything else the volunteers and riders would need.  Unfortunately the day before when they loaded and prepped the trucks Sharon was not around and my truck was not set up correctly so we fought trying to get the correct stuff out at each stop.  We got to meet the volunteer teams at the rest stops and got to snack each time.  The riders went from Lake Louise to Saskatchewan River Crossing and then headed towards Nordegg.

After the last rest stop we saw a bear on the side of the road using the washroom.  We drove to David Thompson Resort and started setting up for the night.  They had several massage therapists come in to look after the riders as well as a first aid tent, concierge tent, pub tent and shop.  Once we got everything parked and all the tents setup and the snacks, beer, wine and ice unloaded we had a few minutes to setup our tents and look around before the riders started arriving.  It was a beautiful camp site with an incredible view of the valley.  The first day’s drive was some of the best scenery in Alberta.  The views were phenomenal and the hills were insane.  When the trucks have issues getting up the mountain I have no idea how the bikers could do it.

When the riders started showing up it was great to get to meet them and talk with them about the ride and why they were doing it.  There was at least one KCC survivor riding in the Tour For Kids.  It was great to talk to the volunteers (including a survivor), the organizers and the riders.  David Thompson Resort did a great job of putting on a steak dinner with all the trimmings and Mill Street Brewery did a great job providing the beverages.  After supper the final trucks had all arrived and we reorganized my truck for the next day.  We did a much better job organizing everything so Saturday would be a much smoother day.

After everything was ready we went over a enjoyed some of the entertainment.  Steven shared some of his story from the ride last year.  He is a survivor and a camp alumni.  He was also featured in the KCC video from last year:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIZzw6ofBvI.  It was a very moving moment and there were very few dry eyes.  We then had the Truckstop Superfriends entertain us for a while.  They were great and it was a great big party.

The next morning we were again up early and were treated to a great big breakfast by David Thompson Resort.  We hit the road around 7:30 again and were off to Rocky Mountain House.  We set up a bunch of rest stops and went through Nordegg, Rock Mountain House and Caroline.  In Caroline we set up the lunch stop for most of the riders.  The long riders were doing 215km this day.  We spent a little extra time there making sure everything was ready to go and visiting with the volunteers.  We then headed up several really, really big hills to Sundre.  We stopped and set up another rest stop and then headed to Sundre Aquatic Centre to set up the finish.  We set everything up and then we waited… and waited.  Finally the truck that was supposed to setup the finish arrived and then everyone left to go set up at Camp Kindle except, myself, Dana and the finish volunteers.

It was nice to get to see all the riders arrive and get to cheer them into the finish.  Once again they had a couple of massage therapists setup here, but the majority were at Camp waiting for them.  They got a quick snack, some water or Gatorade and a bag lunch.  As soon as enough riders showed up they loaded a bus and transferred everyone to Camp.  We had to wait for the 2 clean up trucks to arrive as they had everything for my truck for the final day.  We had to do the transfer in Sundre so they could load all the bikes into the 2 clean up trucks for the trip to camp and the trip to the start in the morning.

Finally once the trucks were transferred over we headed to Camp Kindle.  Everyone with Kids Cancer Care (and many of the volunteers) were very excited to show the riders and organizers where their money was going.  Once we arrived everyone was having a great time… the giant swing was going, tents were being set up, people were checking the camp out and they had the lemonade stand serving organic beer and lemon tea beer.  Once everyone showed up we all had a great meal and small presentation about the camp.  Everyone had a great night with the zip line, the big swing and lots of good conversations.  It was also nice to have a long hot shower and sleep in a bunk for the night.
 
Sunday morning we were again served a great breakfast and were off again early to set up the rest stops.  This was the shortest day for the riders as they had a choice between 100km and 120kms.  We set up one rest stop and then headed to a small community hall to set up the lunch stop.  Since this was a short day there was a lot of setup at lunch and lots of volunteers showed up to get lunch ready for the riders.  After one more quick rest stop we were back at the Rock Pointe Church to get ready for the finish, the BBQ and to clean up and organize the trucks.  Jennifer and the kids came to welcome the riders and there was a fun party atmosphere to the finish.  It was great cheering the riders as they finished this great tour.
 
During the BBQ Sharon asked me if we would be interested in having Karlee featured on the signs and website as one of the kids they are riding for.  Of course we agreed as anything we can do to assist Coast to Coast Against Cancer and Kids Cancer Care is worth our efforts.  I have already let them know I will be back next year and am working on convincing Jennifer that she should join me.

We were also talking through the entire ride about The Inside Ride.  They take a bunch of stationary bikes from Coast to Coast and have teams of 6 ride for 10 minutes each.  It is another fundraiser for Kids Cancer Care and promises to be a great event.  I have put together a team and we will be riding at Bankers Hall on September 26th from 12:00 – 1:30.  If you would like to make a donation you can do so at: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=3070385&Lang=en-CA.  Please pledge our team if you can as this is a very worthy charity and 100% of the money raised comes back to Kids Cancer Care.