Fun Soars At Camp Rising Sun

This is camp week at Camp Rising Sun, so 120 kids who are battling cancer are spending time just being kids — -swimming, going horseback riding, hiking, doing arts and crafts and making friends. (Pictured: a group on the bus.)

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the camp, a place with 500 wooded acres, state-of-the-art cabins and endless activities. When it started, the camp had only 8 kids. Now the camp draws 120 kids, primarily from Connecticut and beyond. Many kids, ages 5 to 18, return each year to the camp they and their parents love.

Camp Rising Sun is staffed by volunteer doctors, nurses, and counselors who give a week of their time to work at the camp, which is located in Colebrook. It operates during this, the third week of August.

But the camp‘s operational base is here in Branford, where Assistant Fire Chief and Fire Marshall Shaun Heffernan works. Heffernan (pictured), a paramedic expert, is a founding director of the Camp Rising Sun Charitable Foundation, which he helps oversee in his off time.

He is the catalyst who keeps the camp running. The week away is held at Camp Jewell YMCA, which is located on the shores of Triangle Lake in the northwest hills of Connecticut. The kids and their families pay no fee. 

Heffernan told the Eagle he joined the camp 13 years ago when a friend, who is a pediatric oncology nurse, pressed him into service. He recalled the conversation: “‘I do this camp and we need counselors. Can you take a week off of work and come to camp?’ I said, ​‘Sure, I have some vacation time, and I can take it.’ So I went one year and spent a week in a cabin with five to nine years who were absolute maniacs, and after that I got hooked.”

Every year Camp Rising Sun holds a fundraiser at the Owenego Inn, an upbeat event that helps the organization raise the funds to keep the camp in business. This year a band joined the evening’s festivities. 

“We have 75 volunteers, and this is a 100 percent volunteer staff. We have a pediatric oncologist and five registered nurses on duty 24-hours a day to tend to medical needs at the camp. The kids get their chemotherapy and whatever they need while at camp,” he said.

At this year’s fundraiser one mom described how much her daughter loved the camp. She started going when she was 5. She spent her last summer at the camp when she was 12.

And as fate would have it, she died there, her mother told hundreds of guests at the Owenego event. Dr. Joe McNamara is pictured at the mom’s side. In the second part of this video, she tells her story. 

Heffernan said these kids require special medical treatment and are unable to have the camp experience other kids have. So this place is important in their lives, he said. Pictured is Deanna Delmonaco surrounded by friends and family.

They do all the things you would typically do in a summer camp but because of their illness, the effect of treatment on their illness, they are unable to go to a regular camp.” 

Here is one kid fishing.

And another one learning how to make pizza dough.

Sometimes all you need is to hang out.

At the Owenego fundraiser last month Heffernan and Dr. McNamara, who has contributed his time and expertise to the camp for the past twenty years, both discussed the fact that the American Cancer Society will no longer sponsor pediatric cancer camps across the nation. The Society ends its funding this October. ​“We were told we were no long a sustainable need in line with their mission.” Here is Dr. McNamara with camper Erika Finnegan.

Heffernan said the notice was not unexpected. Sensing some changes, he said that about six years he and others became concern that this could happen someday so we started a foundation.

Each year in July the foundation holds a fundraiser at the Owenego Inn to raise funds for the foundation. In turn, the foundation writes checks for the camp. The overall budget is $150,000 a year.

The fundraiser at the Owenego last month brought in about $80,000. Folks loved the evening. The barbeque guys got right into the fun of the evening. Pictured from left are Anthony Floyd, John Bloomquist and Al Nenninger.

“So we will continue on; the campers won’t notice anything different. But behind the scenes as of this Oct, ​“we are no longer an American Cancer Society organization.” Volunteers will become increasingly important as will the need for more funds, Heffernan added.

Heffernan says Camp Rising Sun will not only need to rely on public support to support the kids at camp, but will be urging volunteers with special skill sets to help them out. For example, the camp relied on the American Cancer Society to write press releases, and do marketing, public relations and website work. Now it needs volunteers to help out in those areas.

“Not everyone has to be a person who wants to come to camp for a week. We need folks who will work from anywhere.”

If you would like to contribute to Camp Rising Sun, please visit the camp’s website. 

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