Austin Huff didn’t really know what to expect as he made his way from Columbus Air Force Base to Camp Pratt, where he and eight other newly minted 2nd lieutenants had volunteered to work as day counselors at Camp Rising Sun.
The week-long program, which ended Saturday at Camp Pratt, is a camp like no other — devoted to serving children ages 6-16 who have had cancer or are currently being treated for the disease.
The Ocean Springs native was happy to help, of course, but he was a little apprehensive about what he would find.
Perhaps it was the images one often associates with childhood cancer — frail children, weak from treatment, listless, afraid, timid.
That is not what he found.
“I thought the kids would be — I don’t know — more fragile, I guess,” Huff said. “But some of these kids are outrunning me. It’s not what I imagined it all. It’s just the opposite. They’re just kids having fun. Pretty cool.”
Camp Rising Sun was founded by the Junior Auxiliary in 1987. With the exception of one year — a kitchen fire forced the camp to be canceled — the camp has been rolling along ever since, welcoming around 50 kids, which includes cancer patients and a handful of siblings or friends. Campers are permitted to bring someone on a space-available basis.
The camp, like many of the children, seems to get bigger, stronger, healthier and happier each year.
The secret may be that over the years, Camp Rising Sun has become truly a community event. It has no main sponsor organization, but instead draws on the strength of donations, contributions, equipment and volunteers from a host of civic groups, businesses and private citizens, as well as a tireless board of directors that keeps the camp operating smoothly.
The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department and Columbus Fire Department are there for the entire week, attending to the safety of the campers and folks from all walks of life. Many of the former campers are now camp counselors, too. In fact, five of the campers from that original 1987 camp were here this week as counselors. Move around the camp and you’ll find that it’s nothing unusual to find people who have been volunteering here for 20 years or more.
“That’s such a huge thing for us,” said camp co-director Allison Kizer. “We’re not re-inventing the wheel every year because we have people who know what they are doing because they’ve been doing it for years. It does seem like it gets better every year.”
For many of the kids, Camp Rising Sun is the absolute highlight of the year. It’s evident many of the volunteers feel the same way.
In addition to 25 overnight counselors and 24-hour medical staff, there are probably 40 or more who volunteer during day when the sprawling camp becomes a beehive of happy, laughing, active children engaged in a dozen or more activities — from jet skiing to arts and crafts, rock climbing, archery, boating, swimming and even a Friday night dance.
The kids make the magic of Camp Rising Sun.
This all-volunteer army of organizers set the stage.
“When we got the call for volunteers, I was definitely interested,” said Alex Swift, another CAFB pilot-in-training. “It was a chance to get out from behind a desk and have some fun with the kids. Columbus has been very good to us at the Air Force base, so this was a chance to give back to the community. And I tell you, I can’t think of any way to give back that is more fun that this. We’re having a great time.”
And that, of course, is what it’s all about.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.