Created with GIMPCampgrounds associated with the CampNewYork.com consumer website are stepping up their efforts to raise funds for Camp Good Days, a Mendon, N.Y., nonprofit that offers free camps, special activities and other services for children suffering from cancer. Special camps are also available for adults with specific conditions, such as women’s oncology camps and prostate cancer camps for men.
The campgrounds are hoping to set new fundraising records, which would enable them to state that they have collectively raised $1 million for Camp Good Days over the past decade. Stepped up donations are needed not only to support Camp Good Days’ ongoing operations, but to help rebuild two cabins with 60 beds between them that were destroyed by floods in February.
“There was so much damage that we had to tear the cabins down,” said James R. McCauley Jr., Camp Good Days’ director of community initiatives. “Now, we have to rebuild them in another location on our property as soon as logistically feasible.”
While Camp Good Days had insurance on the cabins, the cost of replacing them is higher than expected, hence the need for additional donations, McCauley said.
Matt Anderson, second vice chair of Campground Owners of New York (CONY), which hosts CampNewYork.com, said he hoped that the fundraising initiatives launched by participating campgrounds would inspire others, both inside and outside the campground industry, to support Camp Good Days’ efforts.
“We’re grateful for the financial support that many New York campground operators have provided to Camp Good Days over the past decade,” Anderson said. “We’re hoping than even more join us this year and help us provide Camp Good Days with the financial resources they need as they work to rebuild two cabins that are critically needed by children suffering from cancer.”
Since they started supporting Camp Good Days in 2012, campgrounds affiliated with CampNewYork.com have raised more than $961,000 to support the nonprofit which provides all of its programs free of charge.
Many other campground owners across New York no associated with the planning and booking website have also stepped up to help Camp Good Days.
