Fantastic Times, Fantastic Friends... Camp Fantastic

Started in 1983, Camp Fantastic is Special Love's hallmark program offering a week of summer fun to children with cancer.

The week-long camp provides children with cancer an opportunity to step back from the seriousness of their disease and enjoy the bonds of friendship with other children who share similar experiences.

Camp Fantastic provides classes, recreation, theme parties, campfires and other exciting activities for seven to seventeen year-old cancer patients who are currently being treated or have undergone treatment within the last three years.

A full medical staff from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is on-site to distribute medication and provide necessary treatment.

Olney Rotary Club to host opening festivities for Camp Fantastic

The Rotary Club of Olney, Md., will be hosting an event Sunday, Aug. 17 at the 4-H Club in Front Royal, Va., for Camp Fantastic, a program designed to offer a week of summer fun to children with cancer. Rotary Club members will cook and serve an outdoor barbecue as well as provide entertainment to more than 200 camp attendees and medical personnel. The club has prepared the opening-night dinner every year since 1986 and has supplied camp participants everything from clowns and magicians to hamburgers and cotton candy.

This is one of our most gratifying events of the year, said Jeff Bernstein, a longtime member of the Olney Rotary Club, who has spearheaded the barbecue for the past six years. It’s a heartwarming cause that our members are proud to be a part of.

Camp Fantastic was established in 1983 by Special Love, a nonprofit organization that provides cancer families a network of support made up of other patients and families along with numerous programs that meet their special needs. The week-long camp provides patients from age seven to 17, who are currently being treated or have undergone treatment within the last three years, an opportunity to step back from the seriousness of their disease and enjoy the bonds of friendship with other children who share similar experiences. Activities include classes, recreation, theme parties, campfires and other exciting camp experiences.

The Rotary Club is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and help to build goodwill and peace in the world. In 166 countries worldwide, approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 30,000 rotary clubs.

The Olney Rotary Club, which was founded in 1951, meets every Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. at the Inn at Brookville Farms. It is comprised of civic-minded men and women who work or live in the Olney area. If you are interested in finding out more about how the club serves the local and international community, call Steve Browne at 301-947-4500 x111