Community Corner
Meet KiDS NEED MoRE, Helping Families Thrive Despite Childhood Cancer
Through therapeutic camp programs and community activities they aim to create happy childhood memories.
AMITYVILLE, NY — Local charities are the unsung heroes of our communities. Nonprofit and not-for-profit organizations strive to create lasting change and positively impact the lives of those around them.
Some people start organizations as a way to cope with grief, some see an issue they want to tackle, and some want to bring lasting change. Sometimes, all those reasons apply.
Patch wants to highlight your local charity and connect it with community members who want to help and do good, so that way, more people can benefit. Here is just one of many charities doing terrific work in your community.
What is your name?
Melissa Firmes
What is the name of your charity?
KiDS NEED MoRE
What is your position within your charity?
Executive Director
What community is your organization based in
Amityville/ serve all Long Island
Link to your website
www.kidsneedmore.org
What is your mission?
Our mission is to enhance the lives of children and families coping with the trauma of serious illness and traumatic interruptions of childhood. We believe that fun and friendship heals. Through our connections in our therapeutic camp programs and community activities we thrive and create, happy childhood memories that last a lifetime.
What does your charity do to further its mission? Please list examples.
We provide Camp programs such as our Day Camp called Saddle Rock Day Camp that serves children through creative, art therapy, sports, stomach activities, and other every day wonderful activities should expect to see at Day Camp along with therapeutic horseback riding.
We also have a Sleepaway camp exclusively for children coping with cancer and their siblings. This beautiful experience is a getaway, but also a way to connect with peers.
During the holiday season, we run the holiday Cheer Bus program delivering the holiday wishes through a goofy, silly scavenger hunt led by Elf teams! A special event that is like no other.
What inspired you to start your charity?
Our charity began to continue our pediatric oncology Sleepaway Camp, Camp Adventure. My husband and I met at that camp in 1996 and many of my young adult memories and growing up had to do with this wonderful experience. When the camp lost its funding, we looked to each other and decided that we would start a charity to continue the work of the camp, so that it would continue for many years to come. The charity began with the help of other childhood cancer survivors and their siblings who had attended the camp and wanted to see it continue. Today our organization is led by the youth that we once served!
How can people help you accomplish your organization's mission or get involved in events?
We have many volunteer opportunities from the typical to the goofy and the silly. We need people who know how to help maintain our property over at the Ranch, but we also need creative art therapist, social workers, and we need people who are not afraid to dress up like elves and bring holiday cheer.
What is the most memorable moment you've had since starting your organization?
There are many memories. It's very hard to choose just one, but I think when I get that opportunity to see a family, who is coping through such a difficult time in their life, be at a loss of a child or the regaining their health it means a lot to me. I have one particular camper we have known since he was young. He has battled cancer twice since he was 6 years old and he also lost his mother to cancer. He's an adult now, a young adult, and he comes and he helps me at events. He tells me about how this uplifted his life and it's something that he looks forward to. It's something that gives him meaning and Hope. When he told me this, it really made me feel that we were doing the right thing here that there's something special going on something we want to continue.
What else would you like people to know about your charity?
Life doesn't pause for tragedy. When a child faces illness or trauma, time doesn't stop. Childhood years, like being six, can't be relived or redone. They happen just once. While adults might have the chance to recover from a bad year, a child's formative years are unique and unrepeatable. It's crucial to create positive memories during these years, even in difficult times. These memories become a foundation for future experiences, offering strength and shaping how one approaches life. It's our goal to foster these joyful memories, recognizing their lasting impact and the resilience they build. This is the essence of what we strive to achieve, especially in challenging circumstances.
Childhood only happens once, let's make a good one.
What are your organization's social media pages or handles?
Do you help run a charity?
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