Rist Canyon – Miles of rough road have led children to an oasis here, hidden away in the mountains.
At a glance, it’s a summer camp. Boxer shorts fly on the flagpole, just below the Stars and Stripes, and counselors delight as games with the younger kids degenerate into giggling frenzies.
But lunch begins with a moment of silence.
After the meal, a counselor recites a list of names and children rush away from the tables to the “med bar,” where they’re treated. Every child at this camp, in one way or another, bears the scars of a fight with cancer.
The aim at Sky Hopes Camp is to let them forget about it for a week.
Kat Tanke, 13, wore a shirt that declared “Life Is Better Blonde.” Her smile revealed rows of blue and green braces. Before she could remember, she had developed cancerous tissue around the optic nerve in her right eye.
“They had to remove it, and my eye sank back in its socket,” Kat said. She’s had several surgeries to ease complications. A recent operation helped keep her eye more moist, as her eyelid couldn’t reach back far enough to meet her eyeball.
As a result, her right eye constantly winces.
“In public, they kind of stare sometimes,” she said. “But you get used to it after a while.”
At camp, people don’t stare so much.
“Everyone’s had cancer here, and you can really relate to them,” she said.
The ninth-grader can instead focus on horseback riding.
About one-third of the nearly 70 kids at Sky Hopes are, or were, cancer patients, said camp director Connie Hirz. The rest are siblings or relatives who watched a loved one battle the disease. The camp, in its 26th year and funded by the Ronald McDonald Foundation, is fully staffed by volunteers, Hirz said.
Many counselors have struggled with the disease, too.
Counselor Renata Bradford, a 33-year-old science teacher at Lakewood High School, went to Sky Hopes when she was 14.
She used to have blond hair, but chemotherapy left only a tuft at the back of her head. She wears wigs in public.
“This is one of the few places I feel I can go without my hair and feel like it doesn’t really matter,” Bradford said.
“People always say, ‘Oh, how sad,”‘ when she tells them about her summer. “But look around you. They’re all having a great time.”
Football players from Cherry Creek High School came to camp Wednesday to play non-competitive games such as marshmallow dodgeball. Running, shouting and organized chaos ensued.
Ryan Sachetti, 9, of Aurora lost his father to cancer when he was 2. He’s been coming to the camp practically since he was born, he said.
“I don’t worry about (his friends at camp) because I know they’re gonna get better,” he said. “And if they don’t, they’ll have a happy life. Especially if they go here.”
Staff writer Brandon Lowrey can be reached at 303-820-1201 or blowrey@denverpost.com.
