Notes from parents

This is a  message to express our gratitude for  having Christopher as a Camper, it has been a blessing for our family, but specially for Chris, because besides his illness, being bullied at school, being left out of physical activities at recess by his "friends" because he is "Weak", (also happens from time to time with his friends at home); he finds a place where he feels he really belongs, "no one is different there", is what he tells us.  He had so much fun this year but  he was also sad at the end because no one wanted to say goodbye, he told us that the last evening his cabin spent together, everybody was crying.....he says next year he wishes Camp last a whole month.

P.S. We really loved watching the way all of you spend time at Camp, it was wonderful having received that DVD.  Thanks once more, this time from the very bottom of our hearts.

Miguel & Maria Esther

Words sometimes don’t come easily for me but you, Sergio, Patty, Lenny have played such an important role in Rachel’s life (along with a lot of others at DS). When she was sick she didn’t even want to go to camp she was so shy and didn’t want to leave home and with a lot of coaxing and with her oldest brother she went to camp a scared fragile little girl just ending 6 months of a lot of treatment…..when she returned home that summer of 96 she could not stop talking about camp and all the new friends she had made that were just like her…her counselors and all the exciting things he had done………as much as camp changed her that summer the biggest change came when she became a counselor. Every year she went,  the excitement would build and then camp would start and she was so excited to see all the kids…..she would come home the following Sunday exhausted and would sleep for about 20 hours. She would then start on the stories of camp and all the funny things that were done. She would always end the stories with how she always needed to participate in camp because it always brought her back to her center. To remember the things that are truly important in her life and to always be grateful for the days we have. I can’t say that each year she doesn’t worry about which of her little girls (who aren’t so little now) may not be here anymore but she always remembers that she has changed a life just as hers was changed that first summer. She is definitely a better person because of her experiences with Dream Street and all who are associated.

Lyn Bolt

My life is forever changed because of a place called Dream Street! Think of all the things you dreamed of doing as a child. Dream Street is being able to do ALL of those for a full week, non-stop! For the children attending camp, all who are sick, it was heaven on earth!

It looked something like this:

Candy and junk food at all times! Check!

Being able to zip-line down a ravine in Southern California, as many times as you wanted to! Check!

Rock climbing, again, as many times as you could handle it! Check!

A carnival, where you need no tickets, & you get to dunk your camp counselor over and over again. Check!

Camp directors/counselor’s/doctors and nurses that treat you with the same love as your parents do. Check!

Meeting friends who REALLY understand what you are going through. Check!

Break through a piece of WOOD with your bare hand! Check!

Horseback riding! Check!

Having a water balloon/water gun fight with almost 200 friends, that not a single adult broke up! (Because most were in the middle of it and/or started it!) Check!

Meeting counselors you could look up to because they had battled the same sickness as a child, and are now healthy and happy years later! Check!

Getting to swim every single day! Check!

Having a snowball fight, in Southern California, in July! Check!

Nurses and Doctors on hand 24/7 making sure you get the medicine and medical care you need. Check!

A dance held on the last night where you danced the night away, and then cried because the next morning you would leave the people who instantly “got you”. Check!

Watching your cool camp counselor catch a snake with his bare hands! A BIG one at that, and then laughing as he scared the camp director with it! Check! 

It is hard to pick the most touching/emotional moment of my time there. I only spent a few short few days at camp, but the memories will last me a lifetime. I cried like a baby more than once, and have many times since when I think of this place and the people I met there. The director, Tiffany, has a heart of gold and puts an entire years worth of work into making this place as amazing as it is! She will be a life-long friend of mine, we share the same tender heart, sometimes to a fault I am sure. I still can’t believe the way she organized so many amazing things in one short week. The children love her, she is their angel. They show her in frequent hugs, so many my neck hurt because I would hear “Tiffany, Tiffany!” and turn only to see them running up to her =)

90% of the counselors are survivors, who at a young age attended Dream Street, and couldn’t stay away because of the way it changed their lives. The illnesses they faced range from Cancer to Hemophilia and other life threatening illnesses. They truly understand the emotion and pain these children face every day. I fell in love with many of them, they have a glow and life about them that only a survivor has. I loved watching them interact with the children. For me Dream Street was emotional for SO many reasons. But one way the counselors and children touched my life was in giving me hope. Hope that even if my cancer did come back, I could beat it again, like many of them had. It is very humbling to look up to a 7 year olds strength and perseverance. I wish I had enjoyed the entire week at Dream Street because I didn’t get to know all of the children the way I would have liked to. However, I did get to know a few of them very well. One little girl who had the cutest nickname because of her sickness, had eyes that look like what I imagine an angels to look like. Although she has this calm peace about her, when she is hurt, her eyes show it. And it cuts you to the core. I couldn’t let her go on the last night.

Another little girl had a life changing week at Dream Street! She hadn’t talked for most of her life. Apparently no more than a few words had come out of her sweet little mouth! The day I arrived one counselor was taking video of her talking up a storm while horseback riding. The look on her face was that of amazement, I couldn’t figure out why, I asked “Was she scared of horses?” And she said “No, before Dream Street she had only spoken a few words in her entire life!” This little girl who was gabbing with her new best friend on the horse next to her???

I developed the closest bonds with the counselors and young girls in the cabin next to mine. They took me in on day 2 and blessed me more than they will ever know. I had at least 3 times where we laughed so hard we cried, that great belly laugh where you literally can’t breathe! One of the counselors was Laura, a beautiful Television host from the same area in California. She also shares the “tender heart syndrome” and cried as much as I did! Another with whom I shared a faith in God and a great sense of humor! Her impressions on the last night were comedy central worthy! Aviana was just beautiful and her story of beating cancer will stick with me for a long time! (ALL were hilarious!)

I bonded with one little girl who literally took a chunk of my heart home in her pocket. I won’t say her name because she didn’t want kids at school to know she went to “sick camp”. That conversation broke me, I couldn’t believe what the world around me had become. How is that possible children are making fun of another child for being sick? Really sick. I know as a child I had compassion. I also know that my parents would have worn me out if they had ever heard me making fun of someone who was sick. She is battling something really rough, but when you did get a smile out of her, it would light up your world. I loved what she did get excited about, it wasn’t ever what you expected. After being taken up on stage, by Laura who had also fallen in love with her, she was given the chance to break through 8 huge bricks with a karate master! This is the same little girl that would barely utter a word if you begged her. She walked up on that stage and hit those bricks with her precious little hand. It was as if her sickness, hospitals and any worry she had faded away. Her beautiful face lit up under the beanie hat she wore every single day. I wish I could have bottled up that moment and sent it back with her to help her battle-on! Later that night as the girls were crawling into their bunk beds, I asked her, “Did you love breaking those bricks today or what?” And with true conviction, in a way you could tell she meant every single word of it, she said “That was the best moment of my life!” My heart almost fell out on the floor. Children always say “Best day EVER, Best gift EVER, Best friend EVER!!!!” But you could tell, she meant it, it was truly the top moment, in her so far short lived life. The next day Laura had a great idea. This little girl loved art and creating things. She asked her to take the wood we had broken and paint her quote from the week across both pieces. That way we could take a bit of her home with us. It will now be on my mantle for years to come.

Dream Street is extremely uplifting but can be heartbreaking at the same time. To hear a little boy that looks completely healthy say he needs to leave the bonfire and go to bed because his medicine is making him sick is devastating. I think I may have cried for 2 hours straight on the last night. And that didn’t count the hours in bed later that night. To hear children say the things they said was just more than I could take. I can’t share the truly heartbreaking things they said, it wouldn’t be fair to them. But my prayer would be that every single person visit a place like this. It will change your life. I hope when reading my journal from this amazing trip, you will feel a pull to support this wonderful place. I will carry the strength of these little angels with me throughout the year, and I will without a doubt see them again next year. Dream Street is a special place that changes these children’s lives. After spending day after day at the doctor or in the hospital, they are able to just be kids and that is priceless!

Tiffany Krumins- Ava the Elephant