At Camp Heart + Hands, Kids and Families Find Support and Connection

For greater than a decade, Camp Coronary heart + Arms has given youngsters with most cancers and their households a spot to attach and have enjoyable collectively outdoors the hospital. The occasion provides households a break from the pressures of therapy and a chance to spend time with others who perceive their experiences. Behind the fun-filled weekend of actions is a bunch of devoted Stanford Medication Kids’s Well being nurses who assist plan the camp and volunteer all through the occasion to help campers and their households.

Stanford Medication Kids’s Well being first highlighted Camp Coronary heart + Arms within the 2019 article Summer Fun for Packard Children’s Patients. This 12 months, the custom continued with about 180 campers, together with 24 households attending for the primary time.

This 12 months’s theme, “Coronary heart of a Champion,” introduced the spirit of sports activities to the weekend. Throughout Saturday’s carnival, campers met bunnies, geese, and chickens in a petting space; made colourful creations at tie-dye and humanities and crafts stations; performed video games; and went on pony rides. Hula dancers and aerialists supplied leisure, and campers later cooled off at a day pool celebration.

Past the actions, the weekend created a welcoming surroundings the place youngsters might calm down and be themselves.

For 10-year-old Carla Alfaro-Mata, this marked her third 12 months attending Camp Coronary heart + Arms. Recognized with Langerhans cell histiocytosis in 2024, she attended this 12 months along with her mother and father and youthful brother. After her first camp expertise, Carla started to appreciate that she was not alone and that different youngsters have been navigating comparable challenges.

At camp, Carla is aware of she is surrounded by individuals who perceive, mentioned her mom, Consuelo. If she feels drained, she will relaxation with out having to elucidate herself. That sense of acceptance and belonging is one cause Carla seems ahead to returning annually.

A Place of Help for Mother and father

Camp Coronary heart + Arms additionally supplies significant alternatives for folks and caregivers to attach. On the primary night time, mother and father gathered for a casual, support-group-style dialog. The open discussion board allowed them to share as a lot or as little as they selected, whether or not that meant speaking about their experiences or just listening.

Consuelo mentioned the gathering is very worthwhile as a result of each household within the room understands some side of what the others are dealing with. Though mother and father could also be at completely different factors of their journeys, they will provide each other empathy, encouragement, and a way of group that could be troublesome to seek out elsewhere.

A Totally different Manner for Nurses to Join

Greater than 60 Stanford Medication Kids’s Well being nurses assist plan and employees the camp, serving on the planning committee and as camp counselors. The nurse volunteers characterize a variety of items and specialties throughout the group.

“Many nurses return 12 months after 12 months, which creates an vital sense of continuity for our households,” mentioned Darcy Swisher, a nurse within the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Stanford Medication Kids’s Well being and founding father of Camp Coronary heart + Arms. “It additionally provides nurses the chance to reconnect with youngsters and households they could have cared for within the hospital and watch them develop over time.”

Swisher mentioned the nurses’ medical expertise helps campers take part safely and supplies households with reassurance all through the weekend.

“A lot of our campers have advanced medical wants, so having skilled pediatric nurses at camp is very worthwhile,” Swisher mentioned. “Simply as importantly, camp permits nurses and households to attach outdoors the hospital and construct relationships in a totally completely different approach.”

For Molly Williams, a nurse on the hematology-oncology unit at Lucile Packard Kids’s Hospital Stanford, volunteering at Camp Coronary heart + Arms provides one other method to help youngsters she has cared for within the hospital. This was her sixth 12 months volunteering on the occasion.

Within the hospital, Williams typically cares for kids throughout a few of their most troublesome moments. At camp, she will get to reconnect with them in a totally completely different setting—enjoying, laughing, and having fun with time collectively within the camp surroundings. She defined that spending this time with sufferers may also assist forestall burnout. As a substitute of specializing in procedures and therapy, she will merely have enjoyable with them.

One among Williams’ favourite camp traditions is the Saturday night time dance, when campers, households, and volunteers costume in line with the 12 months’s theme. She particularly enjoys seeing everybody’s creativity and regarded ahead to the sports-inspired costumes and outfits created for this 12 months’s “Coronary heart of a Champion” celebration.

Camp Coronary heart + Arms has been made doable by Jacob’s Coronary heart, serving because the sponsoring nonprofit since 2017. Moreover, Stanford Medication Kids’s Well being has contributed a complete of $30,000 since 2024 to Camp Coronary heart + Arms by the Stanford Medication Kids’s Well being Coronary heart of Nursing Award, funded by the Affiliation of Auxiliaries for Kids Endowment. For campers, households, and volunteers, Camp Coronary heart + Arms is way more than a weekend of actions. It’s a spot to share experiences, create connections, and have enjoyable in an surroundings the place they are often themselves and know they aren’t alone.