North Haven Rotary Club Supports Camp Rising Sun

In mid-October, Amanda Altieri, a guest of President-Elect Debbie Volain and Past President Rick DiNorscia, expressed her sincere gratitude to the members of the North Haven Rotary Club for their donation to Camp Rising Sun.  She described the camp as “an American Cancer Society program that gives children aged 5-17 an opportunity to experience an overnight camping experience and to remember what it is like to have fun.” She explained that every August over 100 children (with cancer or in remission) gather at Camp Jewell YMCA in Colebrook, with most of the kids and parents in tears at the thought of the week’s separation. After a week in a joy-filled atmosphere, and having developed new friendships, they almost hate to go home.

Saying that she personally learned to “realize the importance of hope” Amanda said that “it was the dying wish of one young girl to be able to attend the camp,” one of the first children that she has counseled over the past eight years. The staff of volunteers, most of whom are cancer survivors, provides the experience at no cost to the family, but the expense can run more than $1500 per child and is covered by donations, fund raisers, and corporate sponsors. Now in the camp’s 30th year of operation, the medical staff has been headed by Medical Director Dr. Joseph McNamara, a pediatric oncologist from Yale-New Haven Hospital, for 20 years. For more information, go to www.camprisingsun.com.