Camp Ronald McDonald
by Lorine Parks
Where can children with cancer go and play silly balloon games under towering pine trees, wear wildly colorful tee shirts, sing songs, swim, eat as many hamburgers and fries as they want? At Camp Ronald MacDonald for Good Times, on Apple Canyon Road in the San Jacinto Mountains of Riverside County, that’s where.
Fatima Djelmane Rodriguez showed us a video where campers and counselors enjoyed the good times together. “We want this to be a place where they can understand who they are without the sickness,” she told us. Children from ages 5 to 18 congregate every summer, the patients a little less energetic than the staff, but everyone enjoying the outdoors and activities together.
The Ronald MacDonald Foundation entertains over 1500 children every summer at this Camp for Good Times. The children, some in wheelchairs and many wearing caps, can forget treatment and stigmatizing appearances, when they are surrounded by other campers who, it happens, share their illness. The Foundation provides fun-filled, medically supervised, cost-free, year-round camp programs, at a level suited to the children’s abilities.
“At Camp,” Fatima said, “we are committed to creating long-lasting positive experiences. Camp is a place where children can experience the joys of being a child while in a supportive, safe and medically supervised environment run by only the best staff.”
President Russell Skersick presented Fatima with a check to help with the good work. Members should know that our donation comes from the funds we raised at the 10K Winners night.