For 15 years, Gail Moeder of Great Bend has set aside a week out of her summer to bring some joy into the lives of children who are facing a battle her first husband lost.  
    Camp Hope, The American Cancer Society’s annual sleepaway camp for boys and girls that either have or are experiencing cancer, is underway this week, June 17-23 at Camp Aldrich, 16 miles north of Great Bend. This is the camp’s 30th anniversary, and it owes its success to the work of volunteers like Moeder and others.
    According to Dana Kemp, Kansas Regional Director of Communications for the American Cancer Society, the point of the camp is to give children with cancer a chance to do all the same fun things as healthy children. Moeder witnesses its success each year.
    “The kids will say, even at school with all of their lifetime friends, they still felt different because they were the kids with cancer,” she said. “But out here, everybody else has had it or has it too, so they’re not different, and it puts them all on an even playing field.”
    Moeder is volunteering for her 15th year. She first became involved when she and her first husband played golf in town with the campers during their annual golf tournament. They thought that was so much fun, they wanted to do more the next year. By the next summer, her husband was diagnosed with cancer and they were unable to participate. He did not survive.  
    Some friends had done some fundraising and he asked that it be used to do something for the kids at the camp. Moeder donated the money to go towards the purchase of playground equipment for the camp. When she attended the dedication, she visited with  Donna Brown, the camp’s founder, and asked what more she could do to help the camp. Brown suggested she volunteer, so the next year she did. That was the summer of 1998, and she’s been volunteering every year since.
    The most gratifying part of the camp for her is seeing the campers excitement with all the new things they get to do, reconnecting with old friends and making new friends. Many of the children are returning campers. They can continue to come, free of charge, until their 18th birthday. Some start as young as five-years-old.
    There are several types of volunteers including medical, kitchen, activities and house parents. The house parents are the moms and dads for the week and stay in the cabins with the kids.
    Moeder is serving as a house mother this year, and says some campers, especially the youngest ones, struggle with homesickness. They try hard not to send them back home, because if they can conquer it, they really do enjoy the week. It doesn’t always work however.
    “Volunteers try to get them active in different activities to distract them and get them over the hump,” she says. “They may get to be the “camp sheriff” and write tickets for rules violations, or they may be picked to hunt monsters out on the campground, anything to give them something to divert their attention.
    Tuesday was media day at the camp, and campers were busy not only with activities like crafts, horseback riding and a morning fishing derby, they also met with and talked with representatives from area news organizations. The rest of the week the atmosphere will be more low-key, allowing campers to prepare for the annual talent show, a favorite event for Moeder.
    “We have a talent show on Wednesday night. The campers do it. They MC it, they put it together with the help of the volunteers. Its all the campers that perform, and its amazing to see the talents some of those kids have. It’s a lot of fun.”
    
Fishing Derby

    Tuesday morning, volunteers and representatives from the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism were on hand to organize a fishing derby at one of the ponds on the grounds of Camp Aldrich.
    KDWPT conservation officer Matt Stucker said they stocked the pond with 300 pounds of  channel catfish averaging around 1.25 pounds per fish, or roughly 240 channel catfish for campers to catch. One return camper, Chase Kinney, was out to break his record from last year, having caught 22 fish. He was successful, catching 25.
    Volunteers brought the haul of 167 fish back to the main cabin and laid them out on a shady patch of lawn to count and rinse them.
    “The volunteers are going to fillet and clean them, and that’s what the campers are going to have for supper tonight if they wish,” he said.
    People interested in becoming a 2013 Camp Hope volunteer can find more information on the internet at www.cancer.org/camphope, says Kemp. Applications will be available after the first of the year. Activities and kitchen volunteers must be at least 19-years-old, and house parents 21. Volunteers are asked to commit for the entire week because consistency is important for the campers. Medical volunteers can volunteer for a half week, and many of the kitchen volunteers are day volunteers from the Great Bend area.
    Moeder looks to this year’s head house parent, now in her 70’s, for inspiration. She hopes to continue volunteering for years to come.
    “I’m very honored to be a part of this,” she said.