Camp Heart & Hands
My name’s Darcy Swisher, and I’ve volunteered annually at Camp Reach for the Stars since I was thirteen years old. Camp Reach is held annually in Cambria, CA, and runs for three days and two nights. It welcomes cancer-suffering youths and their families, and aims to offer a momentary escape from the cruel reality of childhood cancer.
Next year, however, I won’t be attending Cambria for Camp Reach for the Stars. Instead, I plan to help launch a camp of our own – hosted in Santa Cruz, and targeting local and Northern California children struggling with cancer.
I’ve partnered with Jacobs Heart to create Camp Heart & Hands. I’m taking my nineteen years of experience at Camp Reach, and working to provide a camp of the same kind in our own back yard, Santa Cruz. Camp Heart & Hands aims to offer a weekend camp in the Santa Cruz area for cancer-stricken children, teens, and their families.
The camp will be free to all the children suffering from cancer and their families. Attendees will be treated to nature hikes, campfire activities, arts & crafts, music, dance, massage, pool activities, great food, new friends, and the experience of a lifetime.
Camp has been a big part of my life since I was thirteen years old. I was their first Junior Counselor in 1996. I’ve volunteered every year since.
The camp shaped who I wanted to be at such a young age. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of children and their families. Today I’m a pediatric nurse, and my career has in large-part been inspired by my early experiences at Camp Reach.
As a junior counselor, I watched as a father clutched his ailing daughter, sitting by a glowing campfire, speaking of his hope to someday find a cure. I listened to the dreams and aspirations of these sweet innocent children and siblings affected by cancer. Some kids were annual regulars through the years, some never returned.
I continued to volunteer annually because I truly believed in the mission of camp. I watched the camp grow in attendance and volunteers. The community came together to provide a weekend of respite for the families in our community that had a child suffering from cancer. I’m proud of my involvement at Camp Reach through the years.
I dream that our community engages with Camp Heart & Hands the same way we did in Cambria.
In addition, I hope to inspire volunteers and counselors of all ages, so perhaps a new breed of Junior Volunteers will be inspired to help, just as I was many years ago.
Please help us make this dream happen. Let’s make Camp Heart & Hands a reality – for children, families, and the Santa Cruz community.
Thank you!
Darcy
