As the rays of summer sun recede, Ezer Mizion's Summer Camps for Special Needs Children come to an end.
About 1,500 children and young adults with special needs participated in the sleep away retreats and day camps. The activities took place with the dedicated help of more than 1,600 one-on-one volunteer counselors and staff members, who participated in this tremendous enterprise at the expense of their own personal vacation, giving the campers many, many moments of joy and fun while enabling them to hold tight to the developmental strides made during the year.
A young mother hugs her child's volunteer counselor on that emotional last day of camp. "You'll never fully understand what this camp has meant both to my daughter and to the rest of my family. May you be blessed!"
Summer retreats were also held for children and parents with cancer together with their families. A total of 150 cancer patients and some 900 family members took part in these retreats.
Cancer patients and their families enjoyed an abundance of attractions and fun experiences, performances and activities. A visit to an amusement park, a glider experience, a visit to the Science Museum, a jeep trip made possible by 150 volunteer drivers, a balloon flying ceremony and many more activities filled every moment with fun and vitality.
The Ezer Mizion retreats for families of cancer patients have become a tradition. Realizing that the challenge of coping with cancer is not only the patient's battle, but that of his entire family, Ezer Mizion creates an opportunity for the patient to spend a week together with the his family and enjoy a hiatus from this difficult period, bonding together in an atmosphere of fun and good times.
In the name of all the participants in both the special needs retreats/day camps and the cancer patient retreats, we thank all those who volunteered their time and who generously contributed financial resources to help make these programs a success, giving the participants an absolutely fabulous time.
