Interview With
John Hollan
Our camp was founded in 1993 as one of the programs under a larger non-profit and became Camp Millennium in 2000 as our camp moved to become an independent organization.
Camp Millennium is a camp that serves children dealing with cancer who are ages 5-16. We serve children with a cancer diagnosis as well as their siblings. We are located in Roseburg, Oregon and we currently serve children from around the Pacific northwest.
Our philosophy/mission is to create a fun, safe, non-judgmental environment in which children dealing with a cancer diagnosis have the opportunity to regain some of their lost childhood. To give children with cancer hope by offering opportunities for social interaction with other children dealing with similar issues. To empower children to be themselves by providing a great camping experience and offering a wide variety of activities for all campers.
During our camp session, we offer art, recreation/games, and swimming as a part of our regular rotation of activities, alongside special events like horseback riding, zumba, judo, and a ropes course. Each year we also take a field trip into Roseburg and we also host several all camp events including our annual camp dance, water day, and our Celebration of Life.
We host a one-week camp session each year. Our camp program is free of charge so that families that may be struggling with the costs associated with cancer treatment are able to attend.
Annually Camp Millennium hosts around 100 campers and have 50-60 volunteer staff on-site all week, in addition to volunteers who come in daily to help with special events and activities. All staff on-site, including our counselors, program staff, and nursing staff go through training on our camp program, the site, the basics of childhood cancer, and best practices for working with out population of children. While we are fortunate to have many staff with us year after year, we do a lot of recruiting through our current staff and other associated organizations and academic programs at local colleges and universities. We often find that our staff are our best resources for recruiting because they can really highlight all we have to offer and the nature of the experience. Another way that we find and recruit staff is through our various fundraising efforts. Since we do not charge our families, we spend a lot of time raising the funds to pay for each child to attend. As such, we have lots of opportunities to engage the public and to partner with other organizations to help make camp a reality. We have found that these partnerships and this publicity has been very helpful in promoting our organization and in recruiting new members of our team One of the things that really benefits our program is the campers who return to our program as staff members once they are eligible. We annually host 5-7 former campers as staff members. With the experiences they bring as survivors and as siblings, they serve as exceptional mentors and relate to our younger campers in a very unique way. This has had a significant impact on our program.
For families that are interested in signing up, our registration is open now. We open around the end of January each year and wrap up our registration in May. For families with questions about the program or specific questions about medical needs, we would welcome calls to ask questions and would encourage families to go ahead and reach out to us so there is time to register ahead of our camp session.
As families explore different types of programs, I would highlight that our program really is very family focused. From siblings attending together to our staff bringing friends and family as new recruits, to the events that we host that bring everyone together under the umbrella of the shared experience that cancer brings, a sense of family develops very quickly while at Camp Millennium. Our program strives to make every camper feel valued, included, and special, and in my opinion, I feel like we are very successful at this. Our program continues to evolve each year and our campers bring so much excitement to each activity. For many involved in our program as participants or as staff, it is one of the best weeks of the year and we see people returning year after year to reconnect with their camp family.
Our website is campmillennium.org, and I hope that people will check it out. There are lots of photos from our recent camp sessions and you will also find information on upcoming fundraisers and links to our registration site. We welcome questions if you want to learn more and we are getting excited about our 2013 session in June!
