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It takes a special kind of company to take a day off a busy schedule just to go visit a children’s camp five hours away. That is, however, just what our Insomniac Cares program did last Friday.

Camp Cartwheel is a program operated under the NCCF (Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation) that allows hundreds of children battling the disease to free themselves from the physical, mental and emotional barriers of cancer. Many children growing up with cancer spend nearly all of their time in hospitals and enduring bodily taxing treatment, and Camp Cartwheel provides them—as well as their siblings—with a weekend of fun, games, and the opportunity to feel normal again. Having held its first session in 1996, the camp is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and is one of the recipients of the 2016 charitable giving initiative for Insomniac Cares.

 

 

We arrived in the early afternoon to a warm reception from Jeff Gordon, the camp’s founder and CEO. Our group was given a tour of the facility and met with instrumental figures in camp leadership, who told us about personal experiences with the camp and the meaning it carried in their lives. As one mother described feeding and bathing her daughter during her last days battling the disease, there wasn’t a single person who wasn’t fighting back tears. We were suddenly quite glad for our sunglasses to help contain a bit of the emotion expressed within that circle.

 

 

Perhaps the best quote of the day came as a counselor explained that the night we came was the night of the camp dance. It wasn’t long before one of us quickly remarked, “Insomniac would come visit on the day of the dance party, on the camp’s 20th anniversary!”

 

 

As we strolled through the large room where the dance was to be held, dozens of campers were busy at work crafting their own tutus and snapbacks. I knelt down next to a boy to see what he was working on, and he immediately told me all about the seven dogs his family owns—breeds, names, and all. “How old are you?” I asked. “Seven!” He responded. “Does that mean you’ll have to get an eighth dog on your birthday?” He nodded gleefully.

 

 

The tour took us past a rock-climbing wall, where campers were busy clambering their way to the top and ringing the victory bell once they’d made it. Jeff turned to me and remarked that some of the camp’s most touching success stories came out of that wall. “The kids learn to overcome their fear of climbing?” I asked. “Absolutely,” he replied. “Some try for the whole duration of the camp, and when they finally ring that bell, it makes their entire weekend.”

 

 

The camp lake may have been the most impressive portion of our tour. The pristine lake covered an Olympic-size pool area and was complete with paddleboats, a swan raft, a scuba diving area, and much more. The campers swam, splashed and frolicked with an unrestricted happiness many waited all year for.

 

 

To conclude our time at Camp Cartwheel, the group participated in the closing ceremony, a camp tradition that involves singing and dancing at the amphitheater. We jumped onstage alongside our new friends and danced along to R. Kelly’s “The World’s Greatest”—a song that nearly every camper knew by heart and one that over time became the closing track for each ceremony. All of the children, from the youngest to the oldest veterans, stood up and danced the routine, with the biggest smiles painted across their faces. They were the world’s greatest in that moment, and we had just been welcomed into something truly special.

 

 

The campers of Camp Cartwheel are wise beyond their years—counselors said it, and we saw it. For a child to endure the pain and stress of a terminal illness takes tremendous courage, and the love, acceptance, and kindness that comes out of such a shared experience is nothing short of extraordinary. These kids understand the value of life more than anybody, and Camp Cartwheel provides them the chance to value that life to its fullest.

 

 

Just one more year of camp, they tell their parents and counselors. I need to make it to one more year.

And so often, they do.


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