At Barco’s Nightingales Foundation, we are avid supporters of Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times. We believe that the youth who participate in these camp sessions are given a chance to feel “normal” and come away with self-confidence and skills that are often lost due to their illnesses.
A multi-year study by the Yale University Child Study Center, found that seriously ill children who attend specialized camping programs demonstrate improved confidence, self-esteem, and social and relationship skills within a month after attending camp. These skills lead to other results such as more positive attitudes towards treatment and medication, and to a better ability to adapt and deal with their illnesses. In addition, family members, especially siblings, who attend these camps showed significant improvement in family relationships and in their ability to cope with their sibling’s illness. Camp experiences allow these children to be just that, children, and to hope and dream without the shadow of their illness interfering.
Consider the story of nine-year-old Amelia (not her real name). This young girl arrived at one of these very special camps partially paralyzed on one side of her body from her illness. Every day she zipped around the cabins sporting a set of toy butterfly wings that she hoped could one day make her fly. At night, while tucked in her bunk bed, she dreamed of those shimmering wings fluttering in the sky and soared in her dreams.
Despite her inability to run and skip, Amelia’s zest for life inspired everyone around her. One afternoon, her counselors brought Amelia to the camp’s gym with a plan to help her skip rope. They strapped Amelia into a harness and a helmet and used a rope pulley to lift her up and down as a jump rope swished beneath her feet and over her head. For the first time in her life, Amelia was jumping rope like she saw her friends do at school. Soon Amelia shouted, “I want to fly, I want to fly!” Her counselors slowly lifted her higher until she was nearly 18 feet in the air, moving up and down and twisting around as her little wings flapped in the air just like the butterfly she pictured in her dreams.

In that moment, Amelia let out a shout of pure exhilaration. “I’m flying,” she shouted at the top of her little lungs, “I’m really flying!” Once back on the ground, Amelia thanked her counselors and took off to go back with her friends, energized by the realization that despite her anything was possible.
Our work with Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times, and other organizations, helps make many dreams like Amelia’s, come true.  Thank you all for your continued support.
~Michael and Frida Donner