Blog
Camp Fantastic 2020 Was Virtually Amazing
Camp Fantastic is about just being a kid, and it’s about building a community of friends, even when you’re online. No one needs community more than kids battling cancer, especially in the time of COVID19. This year, Camp Fantastic proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that community can be found anywhere. The Special Love staff and core of volunteers helped create virtual magic through live-streamed special guests, arts and crafts, photography classes, music, firehouse tours, game and movie nights and so many other online adventures. To help campers find their activities, we created Campfantastic.org which with just a simple click to an activity became the center of all the action – and still is, thanks to recordings that can be viewed anytime to relive the fun. Campers, and sometimes their families, joined us for live demonstrations, campfires, and live Q&A [...]
Camp is Where the Heart Is – and ours was at BRASS Camp
The young siblings of cancer patients deserve a chance to shine, even in the best of times. This year it was even more important because of the impact of COVID-19, so we gave them the entire month of July to be in the spotlight! BRASS Camp, which is just for siblings, is normally held during the last full week in July at Camp Maria in Leonardtown, MD. This year’s pandemic made us move camp to online, but it gave us the opportunity to devote an entire month to siblings. An entire month! Parents who feared their children might not be able to reconnect, instead watched as they connected daily through virtual campfires, arts and crafts, game nights, movies, bingo, and more. And because [...]
In Their Own Words: The Lilabean Foundation
The Lilabean Foundation is honored to have supported five brain cancer families through Special Love during the Covid-19 crisis. At this time, we feel it is so important to act on the real and immediate need that families with kids in active treatment are facing. As a mom to a brain cancer survivor, I know first hand how difficult and overwhelming diagnosis and treatment can be. Add on top of that the financial burdens and health concerns that come with Covid...it is just too much. Our mission at the Lilabean Foundation is to fund pediatric brain cancer research, but we also [...]
“As a parent I can’t bear to think of having to navigate both crises at once…”
Special Love Blog Contributor Shari Fisher The COVID 19 pandemic is reminiscent of another time when I felt isolated and I worried about the future, health and finances. My daughter, Julia, was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor when she was six. As she faced what we hoped to be lifesaving surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, our entire family was plunged into an overwhelming whirlwind of hospitalizations, clinic appointments, medications and home health care along with financial worries and fears of the unknown future. We were removed from cherished friends, routines and activities as we cleaned and sanitized and washed our hands. [...]
Family Ski Weekend – 2020
Skiing - Adaptive skiing – and weather – at Canaan Valley Resort It was all about family. Special Love’s annual Ski Family Weekend was held over the Martin Luther King Weekend at Canaan Valley Resort near Davis, WV, and provided more than 40 families with 3 days of skiing, snowboarding, tubing, great food and lots of indoor fun. For some of the families, it was a chance to join in the fun by using adaptive skiing equipment* to enjoy a day on the slopes. Everyone had to adapt to widely varying weather throughout the event, which included rain on [...]
Winter Weekend – 2020
What winter woes? Our winter has been wonderful! Another terrific Winter Weekend is in the books! Great weather at Bryce Resort in Basye, Virginia provided the perfect place for a wide array of fun winter activities such as skiing, snowboarding, tubing, games and roasting marshmallows over the camp fire. It also gave our teen campers and young adult cancer survivors a chance to rekindle camp friendships. . Our “rustic” lodging was provided by Shrine Mont, a retreat center in Orkney Springs, just two miles from Bryce Resort, allowing us to spend the entire day Saturday on the slopes and [...]
