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Emily's First Fish Caught at Camp Happy Times, Aged 9 Years

 The Valerie Fund’s Camp Happy Times is a special place – a magical, welcoming, safe space for kids who have or have had cancer. This year, Katelyn and Kelly from The Valerie Fund’s development team were able to attend camp as counselors. Katelyn was with the younger girls, and Kelly was shepherding the 10-12-year-old girls. Communications Associate Jill was also there for the week, capturing the stories and providing a look-in into camp life for parents and the greater Valerie Fund Community. It was a special experience, but now that we are back, we all face the challenge of articulating just how extraordinary Campy Happy Times is to someone who has never been.

It is hard to put into words what Camp Happy Times means to the kids. But if you are Emily Woznick, you don’t have to; she can show her tattoo. If you hang around Camp long enough, particularly amongst the older campers, you’ll see a lot of beautiful cancer survivor tattoos. Emily’s is both unique and not. Camp Happy Times has been such a fundamental experience for Emily that she has the Camp Happy Times logo stick figures tattooed on her shoulder.

For those of you who have been following The Valerie Fund, you will have met Emily Woznick when she was featured in our 2021 Focus. Emily is now a pediatric nurse in a step-down ICU unit at Boston Children’s Hospital. Emily shared how, as a camper, The Valerie Fund’s Camp Happy Times brought her a new ‘found family’ made up of friends that, despite camp friends living all over New Jersey, would have sleepovers in the summer and practice for the Camp talent show all night long.

Emily has been attending Camp Happy Times since she was nine years old. Talking with Emily, she explained attending camp dedicated to kids who have or have had cancer brought connections that it doesn’t matter how much time has gone by. You know they have your back, will support you through whatever crisis, and will celebrate the victories. The Valerie Fund’s Camp Happy Times is where campers face what it means to be survivors and have that community in their lives. It is a profound experience where you face what it means to survive and move forward. There is an unspoken bond among campers who all know what it means to be sick your entire life. Emily was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma at eight months old. She may not remember having cancer but has lived with the late effects of the treatment her entire life. When she had to have life-saving surgery in high school, her friends didn’t understand. But with her camp friends, as Emily says, “Who else can you show your ostomy bag to?”

The Valerie Fund’s Camp Happy Times has a LIT (Leaders in Training) program for 18-21-year-olds. Ten years later, Emily still has a group text chat with her fellow LITs. Program Director Ellen Ruban plays a slide show from camp on the last night of camp with music that includes “I Lived” by OneRepublic. Every time Emily hears this song, she thinks of the importance of the LIT program in shaping her life. It is from this song that Emily gets the phrase “I swear I lived.”

The lyrics to I Lived say, “Whenever I had a moment to do something, I did it.” Because of The Valerie Fund’s Camp Happy Times, Emily can swear she lived. She says, “This is a whole group of people who know our moments are fleeting. In the words of OneRepublic, I hope that you take that jump but don’t feel the fall.”