MILLPORT, ALA. — As laughter and playful sounds echo through the trees at a retreat nestled away just 10 miles into Alabama, worries too big for the small shoulders of children fade away as they enjoy a week of normalcy.
Since 1988, Camp Rising Sun has provided children with cancer or who had cancer the opportunity to have one week in the summer just to be a kid and have fun at a sleepaway camp. Originally located at the Columbus YMCA’s Camp Pratt, the camp is currently hosted in Millport, Alabama.
CRS is open to those 6 to 16, and this year there were roughly 35 campers at the camp, which ran from Monday to Saturday.
“We try not to focus on the fact they have cancer,” Weeks said. “So nobody knows except for their counselor and those that need to know that they have cancer, so everybody gets treated the same. We still know which ones may need to be focused on, and we keep an eye on them. We want them to come to camp and have a good time. The ones that do have treatment, they don’t have to think about that for at least one week.”
Children come from all over the world to the camp in large part due to the camp’s proximity to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a leading hospital that treats childhood cancer and pediatric diseases based in Memphis, Tennessee.
The children who have or had cancer that come to the camp are allowed to bring a plus one — whether a sibling or a friend, and Weeks said this helps first year campers.
Activities for the camp include foursquare, horseback riding, arts and crafts and much more. This year there was a Christmas in June-themed dance with an appearance from Santa Claus in vacation clothes, said Dana Butler, who is on the CRS board of directors.
“This is the first year we’ve thrown our first camp dance,” Butler said. “We had the kids out here decorating sugar cookies, face painting.
We killed our first dance that we threw, and Santa came which was a big hit. We had one camper give him a letter because she was so excited to see him.”
First-time camper Danica Najarian, 11, from Pennsylvania, said the dance was her favorite part of the camp.
Weeks said the camp was started by Susan Faulkner, who created it through Junior Auxiliary of Columbus. Because of this and a lot of their financial ties to the Golden Triangle, they eventually would like to move back into Mississippi for the annual summer camp.
Sam Ottenhof, 10, originally from Australia but currently living in Memphis, said this summer is his second year at CRS, and he wants to come back next year.
“I love doing the Olympics because there was this thing that you slid down, and I loved it so much,” Ottenhof said. “I’m not sure what I’m excited for next year because they do new things and change it up. I’m not sure what I want that to be, but I like surprises.”
The camp also brings repeat volunteers from far and wide. One such volunteer is U.S. Air Force Col. Carl Miller who travels from Washington, D.C. for the camp each summer.
“The community is our biggest source of volunteers and support, and every now and then we’ll get college kids come out to be counselors,” Butler said. “… Col. Miller flies out each summer to come help, and he’s awesome. I’m so grateful for all of the wonderful volunteers who come out summer after summer to help us and the kids.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 47 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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