Our History

History of Kesem

Since 2000, Camp Kesem – a college-student-run summer camp for kids whose parents have (or have had) cancer – has provided plenty of laughs and lots of emotional but non-therapeutic support.

This week of sleep-away fun and friendships forged in a safe, compassionate and cancer-aware environment had its beginnings in 2000, when four Stanford University student leaders chose to change the lives of children in their northern California community.

Bringing Magic to Families Coping With Cancer

Working with Hillel at Stanford, staff member Iris Rave helped four student leaders set up Camp Kesem. The group chose the word Kesem, which means “magic” in Hebrew, because its goal was to bring “magic” to families coping with cancer. Since its inception, Camp Kesem has been open to student leaders and campers of any religion, race or ethnicity. Thanks to the hard work of many student leaders, Camp Kesem at Stanford hosted 37 campers at its first one-week summer camp in 2001.

Word quickly spread and the Stanford student leaders encouraged their friends at colleges across the country to replicate Camp Kesem in their communities. Based on the success of the Camp Kesem project at Stanford, Iris Rave also founded Camp Kesem National in August 2002 to help college students from coast to coast to start similar programs.

An Inspiring and Empowering Experience

Each year since its founding, Camp Kesem has improved upon its model, finding new tools for inspiring and empowering students so they can become better leaders who run even richer and more fruitful Camp Kesem programs.

Milestones

In both 2011 and 2013, Camp Kesem was chosen by the LIVESTRONG Foundation as one of four Community Impact Projects. These significant grants have allowed Camp Kesem to open another 24 chapters in total, with 12 new chapters hosting inaugural weeks of camp in the summer of 2014.

In 2013, the Holt Brothers Foundation, founded by NFL brothers Torry and Terrence Holt to improve the quality of life for children and families dealing with cancer, announced the formation of the Holt Brothers Butterfly Grant to fund a second week of summer camp for children at Camp Kesem North Carolina. The Butterfly Grant was named by the Holt’s because it represents the perfect transition from Camp Kesem’s mascot a caterpillar, which takes two weeks to transform into a butterfly. In addition to providing an extra week of camp for North Carolina children in 2013, the grant will assist other chapters across the country with implementing a second week of programs beginning in 2014.

Growth

Camp Kesem has grown steadily, serving more children affected by a parent’s cancer and expanding to more communities every year.

Year	Campers	Student Leaders	Chapters
2001	37	40	1
2002	49	40	1
2003	98	83	3
2004	189	64	4
2005	341	89	8
2006	459	140	9
2007	603	274	15
2008	859	340	20
2009	1,060	989	22
2010	1,206	822	23
2011	1,480	991	23
2012	2,108	1,300	37
Total	8,489	5,172	37

Chapters

Chapter	Year Founded	City	Chapter	Year Founded	City
Stanford University	2001	Palo Alto, CA	University of Wisconsin	2010	Madison, WI
Duke & University of North Carolina	2003	Durham, NC	University of Michigan	2011	Ann Arbor, MI
University of Notre Dame	2003	South Bend, IN	University of Oregon	2012	Eugene, OR
UCSD	2004	San Diego, CA	University of Pennsylvania	2012	Philadelphia, PA
Indiana University	2005	Bloomington, IN	Vanderbilt University	2012	Nashville, TN
UCLA	2005	Los Angeles, CA	Johns Hopkins University	2012	Baltimore, MD
Northwestern University	2005	Evanston, IL	Southern Utah University	2012	Cedar City, UT
UC Davis	2005	Davis, CA	University of Texas – Austin	2012	Austin, TX
University of Virginia	2006	Charlottesville, VA	Augustana College	2012	Rock Island, IL
University of Illinois	2007	Champaign, IL	Florida State University	2012	Tallahassee, FL
MIT	2007	Boston, MA	University of Georgia	2012	Athens, GA
Arizona State University	2007	Phoenix, AZ	University of Washington	2012	Seattle, WA
UC Berkeley	2007	Berkeley, CA	University of Minnesota	2012	Minneapolis, MN
Michigan State University	2007	East Lansing, MI	Columbia University	2012	New York, NY
Texas A&M University	2008	College Station, TX	University of Missouri	2012	Columbia, MO
Brigham Young University	2008	Provo, UT	Ohio State University	2012	Columbus, OH
University of Florida	2008	Gainesville, FL	Syracuse University	2013	Syracuse, NY
George Washington University	2008	Washington, D.C.	University of Nebraska	2013	Lincoln, NE
Camp Kesem Miami	2008	Miami, FL	University of Oklahoma	2013	Norman, OK
Emory University	2009	Atlanta, GA	University of Southern California	2013	Los Angeles, CA
University of Richmond	2009	Richmond, VA