Kesem National

Kesem recognizes and embraces the often-overlooked population of children impacted by a parent’s cancer. Our programs create a life-long community of support, to help address their unique needs. Best known is our camp program - a national network of college student run, FREE summer camps for children ages 6-18 whose parent has or had cancer. We provide a safe and supportive atmosphere where children befriend peers who can uniquely relate to their situation, and gain the strategies and confidence needed to cope with their parent’s illness or death. At the same time, college students develop critical leadership skills as they create, manage, fundraise and run every aspect of their local Camp Kesem chapters. Since our first camp started at Stanford University in 2000, Camp Kesem has grown to 125 college chapters in 44 states across the country. This past summer we served nearly 9,000 children and provided leadership opportunities for over 4,000 college student leaders. We anticipate serving over 10,000 children in summer 2019. Building off of our success to date, we are now charting the course to increase our impact dramatically in the years ahead. There is tremendous opportunity to grow the organization further, until one day we can bring the life-changing benefits of our camps to the 5 million+ children impacted by a parent’s cancer.