USF org supports kids whose parents have cancer: ‘A unique community’

Camp Kesem gives kids whose parents have campers a week to play and form relationships with friends in similar situations. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE/KACEY WOOD

Aliyah “Scarlett” White didn’t want to go to Camp Kesem when she was 13. 

A week-long sleepaway summer camp didn’t feel right when her mom had breast cancer and melanoma.

Begrudgingly, she went to a New Jersey Kesem chapter camp and was surprised at how she fell in love with it.

“It’s magic,” White, who is 23 years old, said. “It just provides such a unique community where there’s kids your age that are going through something very similar to your own situation.”

White is a senior communications and media major at the University of Tampa (UT) and was able to join USF’s Kesem chapter because UT does not have its own.

Kesem is a national nonprofit that supports kids whose parents have cancer. Each year, around 140 collegiate chapters raise money to host their own free summer camp for kids and support campers year-round. Five Florida universities have a Kesem chapter, including USF. 

Aliyah White has been a part of Kesem since she was 13 years old, starting as a camper and becoming the director of USF’s chapter in college. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE/ ALIYAH WHITE

This year, White is the director of USF’s chapter and her mom has been in remission for several years now.

She said when her mom was diagnosed, she ended up taking on a lot of adult responsibilities. 

Camp Kesem gave her the opportunity to be a kid again.

“Having that week where we could just go and be kids and do all these activities with other kids our age and then truly getting to connect with them on that deeper level just made this bond that was unbreakable,” she said.

The camp is a week filled with games and activities but culminates in “Empowerment Night,” which allows campers to share what they are going through at home.

White and her younger sister Addyson attended Camp Kesem together when they were younger. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE/ALIYAH WHITE

White’s mom was the one encouraging her kids to go to camp. At Kesem, each camper and counselor picks a nickname to go by – it’s a chance to separate themselves from the reality back home. 

Her younger sister, Addyson, had chosen the name “Little Red” for her red hair. White didn’t want to pick a name – at that point, she still didn’t want to go to camp. But she and her mom settled on “Scarlett” – the nickname she still uses as the USF chapter director.

But the support Kesem offers is year-round. Twice a year, Kesem hosts “Family and Friends Day,” something White described as a day at camp away from camp.

Kacey “Pilot” Wood is the development coordinator for USF’s chapter. The 24-year-old said the chapter’s fundraising efforts throughout the year make Camp Kesem free for campers. 

It’s important, she said, since families already have cancer treatment bills to pay.

She chose the nickname “Pilot” after her favorite band, Twenty One Pilots.

Neither of Wood’s parents have had cancer, but she joined the organization after seeing how she could make a difference as a role model for the campers.

“It just meant so much to be a positive role model for them and then learning in school that sometimes that one person is all it takes for somebody to keep going,” she said. “That’s so cute.”

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USF’s Kesem chapter, founded in 2018, will host around 30-40 campers at Warren Willis Camp in August. 

USF’s Camp Kesem hosts campers whose parents have cancer for a week in August. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE/KACEY WOOD

It costs about $500 to send one kid to camp, Wood said, and a little over $1,000 to support the camper year-round. This year, the chapter’s fundraising goal is $38,000.

Student volunteers are tasked with raising a certain amount of money individually and the organization hosts several tabling events to raise money on campus.

Wood is also a counselor at Camp Kesem. She didn’t want to go at first either because she didn’t think she had the personality to be a counselor as an introvert. 

But she said she was glad she went because it changed her entire career trajectory.

“Going to camp and seeing how something like cancer, like other adverse childhood experiences, really impacts the family unit as a whole, I just really wanted to be involved in the systems of care that support children’s behavioral health,” she said. 

“Really you could see so many kids light up when they would share their story. You could hear how vulnerable but how strong they are.”

She graduated with a bachelor’s in criminology, but now she is a graduate student at USF pursuing a master’s in behavioral health.

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While USF’s Kesem chapter is not hosting a specific event on World Cancer Day on Tuesday, Wood said their efforts are year-round and they will join the national chapter by recognizing the day on social media.

Kesem will host its second “Family and Friends Day” in March, and its “Make the Magic Gala” will be held at USF in April.

For White, these are some of the senior’s last events to give back as a student volunteer.

“I’m just really looking forward to getting to see that magic created one last time,” she said.

LILY BELCHER, MANAGING EDITOR

Lily Belcher is the managing editor for The Oracle. She's a mass communications and professional and technical communications double major. She started at The Oracle in summer 2023 as a correspondent and worked her way up to news editor. She has been freelancing for local newspapers for four years and hopes to write for a major newspaper following her graduation. Reach her at belcher20@usf.edu

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