One New Chapter Deserves Another

At age 13, I was an honor student visiting her father for the first weekend of summer vacation when he woke me to break the news my mother had died from cancer I had known about for 2 days. At 14, I was a drug addict. At 16, I was a daily drinker. At 17, I was in a psychiatric ward. At 26, I began the work of changing my life around by getting sober. It was then that, for the first time in my life, I understood the value of having people around who get what you’re going through because they’ve been there too.

In three weeks, at 36, I will marry the love of my life. We have everything we need. But there are children struggling with a parent’s cancer who don’t. When Mark and I created our wedding registry, we put only ONE thing on it: a brand new chapter of Camp Kesem at The University of Kansas. CK provides 100% free week long summer camps to children affected by a parent’s cancer. I have seen the miracle of this community first hand. There are Camp Kesem chapters nationwide, but the entire state of Kansas doesn’t have one.

Please, join us in making magic and changing the lives of hundreds of children while also enriching the lives of the Kansas Jayhawks.

I’ve never been to Kansas, but my love was born there, so I know it is a magical place.