The first Sunrise Day Camp opened its doors in New York during the summer of 2006 as a project of the Friedberg JCC. The camp – the first of its kind in the entire world – offered a full summer day camp experience to 96 children affected by cancer. Now in its thirteenth year, Sunrise is a 501(c)(3), providing services to over 5,000 children annually through its day camp and year-round programs. There are currently eight Sunrise Day Camps – three in New York (Long Island, Pearl River and Staten Island), one in Maryland and three in Israel (Beit Yehoshuah, Be’er Sheva, and Ramat Yochanan). Sunrise is excited to have opened its eighth camp – Aurora Day Camp – in 2018 at The Davis Academy in Atlanta.
Aurora Day Camp is Georgia’s first full 7-week summer day camp for children with cancer and their siblings offered completely free of charge to families. While overnight camps exist for children with cancer, not all children are physically able or comfortable to sleep outside of their own homes particularly when they are very young and/or recently diagnosed, not all parents are emotionally prepared to have their children far from them when they are undergoing treatment, and not all treatment plans can accommodate a hiatus or a facility different from their home hospital. Aurora – as a day camp – provides a type of camp that no one else is offering in Atlanta, filling a critical gap in the social, emotional and recreational needs of these children.
