DONATION SENDING ILL KIDS TO CAMP; MONEY WILL PROVIDE WEEK'S STAY FOR FIVE.Byline: Mary Lou Aurelio Daily News Staff Writer A $2,500 donation from the Glendale Community Foundation will give five local children with cancer a week at Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times and the opportunity to have fun and ``just be a kid,'' the director said. ``You do not have to explain why you're bald or have a catheter in your chest, or why you're on crutches or can only see out of one eye,'' said Susan Franklin, the camp's executive director. ``Everybody's been through something.'' Tom Miller, executive director of the Glendale Community Foundation, said that was the reason the endowment granted the money. ``The board felt that the activities conducted at the camp really help to reinforce and re-establish the self-esteem of young cancer patients,'' Miller said. ``When they're losing their hair and they don't look the same as the other kids in school, it can really help. It's an opportunity to be around kids who share the same circumstance so they're not alone in this.'' It will be the third time Jonathan Duncan Jonathan Erskine Duncan (born May 16, 1982 in Lae, Papua New Guinea) is a swimmer from New Zealand, who competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. There he didn't pass the qualifying heats in the 200, 400 and 1.500m freestyle. of Glendale will visit the camp located near Idyllwild. The 8-year-old was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor Brain Tumor Definition A brain tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue in the brain. Unlike other tumors, brain tumors spread by local extension and rarely metastasize (spread) outside the brain. in December 1997, said his mom, Tasha Noriega. ``They told me it was terminal and inoperable inoperable /in·op·er·a·ble/ (in-op´er-ah-b'l) not susceptible to treatment by surgery. in·op·er·a·ble adj. Unsuitable for a surgical procedure. ,'' she said. ``Fortunately, we got a terrific surgeon, who got most of it.'' Since it was pressing on Jonathan's optic nerve optic nerve: see vision. , he lost sight in one eye and the peripheral vision peripheral vision n. Vision produced by light rays falling on areas of the retina beyond the macula. Also called indirect vision. Peripheral vision in the other. So far, the tumor tumor: see neoplasm. has not regrown, Noriega said. Jonathan will attend summer camp for a week in July. He went last summer and then to a winter session, Noriega said. ``There's a lot of little survivors going to this camp and they can talk to each other about things they've experienced that others haven't,'' Noriega said. ``It's wonderful to see my son feeling like he's not alone.'' Spokeswoman Jil Blumberg-Froman said the camp is staffed by volunteers, many of them former campers, and the emphasis is on fun. ``Basically the focus is to provide a place to shed the stress of daily life,'' she said. The camp is funded by corporate sponsors and free to the children and their families. There is painting, crafts, drama, swimming and horseback riding horseback riding: see equestrianism. and for teens a three-mile backpacking backpacking Sport of hiking while carrying clothing, food, and camping equipment in a pack on the back. In the early 20th century backpacking was primarily a means of getting to wilderness areas inaccessible by car or by day hike. trail. ``We give them back the can-do attitude,'' Franklin said. ``Most of the kids who come here don't even say, I want to get well. They say, I just want to be normal, and we give them a big dose of normal, as much as we can.'' CAPTION(S): photo PHOTO Jonathan Duncan was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in 1997, said his mother, Tasha Noriega. He'll spend a week at Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times in the summer. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News |
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