Children’s camp celebrates 20 years
Danny Cavett believes that everything you do can have an influence on someone else. That’s what has driven Cavett to where he is today, as founder of six camps for patients at The Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center.
Camp Cavett, one of the camps offered to patients, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this weekend, with five days of fun at Lake Texoma in Kingston.
This camp garners more than 200 campers and 200 volunteers each July, giving children normally stuck in a hospital the chance to go to summer camp.
It all began 38 years ago, when Cavett started a kidney camp, Kamp Kidney, now the oldest camp in the country for children with kidney problems.
Cavett’s six camps also include Heart Camp, Ski Camp, Camp PKU (for children with Phenylketonuria disorder) and Camp Wildfire.
There’s also a Leadership Camp for older children from all the other camps.
All these camps, while focusing on different health issues, have the same goal: fun.
“We do research with our camps, too,” Cavett said. “The question is: We know kids are having fun, but are we really helping them?”
Cavett’s job, when he’s not joining the kids on water slides or skiing with them down mountains, is helping patients and their families cope with their illnesses. Cavett is director of the Pastoral Care Team at OU Medical Center and has been at his job, as a chaplain, for 41 years.
Though he works for all the hospitals at OU Medical Center, it’s clear he favors the children’s hospital. His job isn’t always easy, but he wouldn’t want to do anything else.
“Even in bad outcomes, it’s meaningful to know you’ve helped a family during a bad time,” Cavett said. “But I’ve also seen some miracles.”
When asked if he was just a big kid at heart, he grinned and nodded.
“Some research asks: What gives you a spark? What sparks you? For me, it’s to see the kids grow up,” Cavett said. “That’s my passion.”
Hundreds of kids packed into vans Wednesday morning to head to camp. Cavett said that each year the campers are just as excited as if it was Christmas morning.
For Camp Cavett’s director of diversionary play, Ashley Simpson, camp is the place kids open up and get to act like themselves.
“A lot of times they’re braver at camp,” Simpson said. “They can do the ropes course, they can cut themselves and they can push themselves. A lot of times this is the only camp they can go to.”
Simpson is a registered art therapist and she’s seen the effect arts and crafts can have on these kids, not just during camp, but when they’re back at home, too.
“The kids are nervous, even though it’s an outpatient appointment, maybe for a spinal tap, chemo or an infusion,” Simpson said. “So if we can create a space where they can relax and not focus on what’s happening, when they finally go back to see the doctor it’s much easier for everyone since everyone’s relaxed.”
Camp Cavett, like many summer camps, includes arts and crafts, sporting events, water slides and much more.
“Almost half these kids can’t get in lake water, cause they’ve got some sort of port or something, so we rent the world’s largest water slide,” Cavett said.
Wanting this to be a place of learning as well as fun, Cavett focuses on what he calls the three C’s, rotating each year between Coping, Character and Connection.
Cavett also emphasizes the importance of helping others.
“If you never learn how to help somebody else,” he said, “you’ll never be successful in life.”