WHAT IS CAMP QUALITY?
Camp Quality is a week long camping experience and year round support system for children with cancer and their families. Each child is assigned a companion who provides support and encouragement during the week. They spend twenty-four hours a day together which usually results in friendships that last long after camp has ended.
Our goal at Camp Quality is to provide these special children the opportunity to experience new and exciting activities in a medically safe environment. We offer the opportunity to make new friends and create fun memories that will sustain them in the weeks and months ahead as they continue their medical treatments.
Camp Quality is a volunteer, non-profit organization. There is never a cost to our campers or their families. We depend totally on the generosity of individuals, business, organizations, and foundations acting out of concern for these children.
History of Camp Quality
The first Camp Quality was established by Vera Entwistle in 1983 in Sydney, Australia. The first year was extremely difficult. Promised corporate funding was suddenly cancelled even though 20 children were already signed up for camp. The Saints Church, Rotary, Lions, Apex and many others heard of the plight and pulled together to provide funding.
Yet many people felt the camp would never by a reality. "Parents of such sick children will never entrust them to you." "You will never find volunteers who will work one-on-one with a child with cancer." "You will never find doctors and nurses willing to give their time free of charge."
In spite of the hurdles, that first camp was a success. The week ended $389 in the red, but that was just another challenge!
The love and caring of that first camp has now spread to 57 camps in 19 countries. The Camp Quality USA branch has 15 camps in 10 states.