Camp Sunshine Offers Family Vacation PLUS

By Mary Donovan

It’s a wonderful family vacation, a marvelous thing to do and an unforgettable experience.

That’s how Miriam Gnieski feels about Camp Sunshine. Miriam has spent three weeks at the camp and she’s rarin’ to go again.

Camp sunshine on Point Sebago in Casco, Maine is a retreat for children with life threatening diseases and their families. Sponsored families spend a week at a time, relaxing, enjoying themselves, sharing experiences and learning more about their particular problem. The camp hosts 40 families for a week. Each week is dedicated to a different disease. At least one child in the family must be suffering from that disease. Each volunteer is assigned two children. Families are invited to return every two years.

Miriam Gnieski has volunteered for the past two summers. Summer 2002, Miriam went with a student in the Confirmation program who had Camp Sunshine as a project. That week was dedicated to a disease called diamond black fan anemia. This summer she and her teenage daughter Meaghan spent a week with a group from St. Mary’s and another with a group from Notre Dame. One week, the disease was lupus and the other was week for the families of people lost on September 11.

Volunteers select whichever week they would like to work at the camp. They also select whichever age group they prefer to work with. Miriam said she always picks the nursery. Families and volunteers stay in separate facilities. Miriam and her group were housed in a large motel-type building with a laundry room and vending machines, she said. The accommodations were very comfortable, a small suite with shower, refrigerator, microwave, TV and phone. They had one dorm-type room and one room with two beds.

Miriam outlined a typical day. Breakfast is from 8 to 9 a.m., volunteers work in their designated area from 9 till noon then everyone has lunch. In the afternoon, volunteers work with their children from 1 until 5 p.m. During that time, parents consult with doctors or learn about the disease.

The evenings are time for fun and relaxation.. There are masquerade parties, talent shows, and sometimes group sing-a-longs, she said. There’s a teen rec room for indoor entertainment and the great outdoors for things like roasting marshmallows over a campfire. At the end of the week all volunteers come up with a skit to perform with their kids.

Fun time ends at nine. Then it’s slow down time for the adults. For the teen volunteers, however, the evening is just going into another phase.

"The kids are up until 1 a.m.," she said. "They’re so wound up meeting new kids."