Kids whose parents battle cancer find joy, empowerment at SU’s Kesem chapter
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UPDATE: This story was updated at 10:53 a.m. on August 26, 2026
For one week a year since 2023, Syracuse University senior Zoe Szvetecz trades her given name for “Starfish.” What started as a passion she shared with her mom ended up becoming her official “camp name” at SU’s chapter of Camp Kesem.
At Camp Kesem, every counselor and camper leaves their real names behind to go by their camp names. From “Sunset” to “Starfish,” these names are picked by the kids based on childhood nicknames or hobbies.
Camp Kesem is a national organization that provides free summer camp and year-round support for kids whose parents or guardians have been impacted by cancer. Since Camp Kesem’s founding at Stanford University in 2000, the organization has partnered with more than 115 colleges and universities — including Yale University, the University of Southern California and SU. SU’s chapter started in 2015.
For one week each summer, campers ages 6 to 18 get to be whoever they want to be, leaving their worries and responsibilities behind for a chance to simply be kids.
Oftentimes, a child whose parent or guardian has been affected by cancer tends to take on adult responsibilities they shouldn’t have to worry about, SU junior Charlie Raibman, “Baller,” said. At Camp Kesem, its mission is to cultivate a space for kids to be kids.
This year’s Camp Kesem for SU took place in Copake, New York, from August 13 to 18.
Raibman, who was a counselor this summer and is part of its administrative board, has been involved with the organization since he was 9 years old. He attended his first camp after his mother was diagnosed with cancer. From ages 10 to 18, he attended Camp Kesem every summer at the College of William & Mary’s chapter in Virginia.
After his years as a camper, Raibman knew Camp Kesem was something he wanted to continue to be a part of. Following his senior year of high school, Raibman became a counselor for the summer at the College of William & Mary’s chapter and continued his journey with SU’s chapters the years following.
“It’s a time where you can come as you are, be whoever you want to be and be surrounded by people who understand what you’re going through,” Camp Kesem counselor Sophia Babcock said.
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Camp Kesem is a way for college students to volunteer, fundraise and create connections with those kids and work throughout the year to plan the camp, Raibman said.
Though none of Babcock’s family members have had cancer, the overall impact Camp Kesem has on its campers is just as large on its counselors, even to the point where it’s influenced what they may pursue as a career in the future, Babcock said, who graduated from SU in May.
“How do you have those hard conversations while supporting them, but at the same time we are college kids ourselves, we are still young and have a lot of growing and maturity,” Babcock said. “So a lot of these heavy conversations can be daunting but teach you how to make them feel less alone and heard.”
Counselors prioritize making campers feel seen and heard while they experience potential pressure or stress at home. Raibman’s 11th birthday fell during his first week at Camp Kesem. Since then, he’s had five birthdays celebrated at the summer camp.
On Raibman’s 13th birthday, Camp Kesem held an activity called “messy games,” where campers and counselors run around throwing paint and shaving cream at one another. The night before his birthday that year, Raibman’s counselors asked him what he wanted. All he told them was Oreos and silly string.
The next morning, Raibman had a box of Oreos to himself and was the only kid with silly string at “messy games,” he said.
“I never would have imagined I would ever want to spend my birthday anywhere but home, but having your birthday at camp is the best,” Raibman said. “Everyone makes you feel so special.”
Babcock first got involved with SU’s Camp Kesem chapter when she heard about it through a friend four years ago. At the end of this summer, Babcock closed out as one of the co-directors of the SU chapter and worked as a counselor every summer before.
Since the kids aren’t forced to talk about their experiences, Camp Kesem has on-site mental health professionals who are available at all times for the kids to speak to. This also means that anytime there’s an active diagnosis or a camper loses a parent during the year, the Camp Kesem staff is able to offer support for them.
“Even the parts that are hard are so worth it,” Raibman said. “Seeing the kids have a good time makes everything throughout the year and at camp so unbelievably worth it.”
Sudha Hurley-Heil (second) became involved with Kesem during her freshman year and has been involved for the past four. Hurley-Heil has had experience with family members dealing with cancer, so joining Camp Kesem was an easy decision for her. Courtesy of Sudha Hurley-Heil
Sudha Hurley-Heil, who also graduated from SU in May, found Camp Kesem in a tabling event during her freshman year. Hurley-Heil has two moms with breast cancer diagnoses, so when she saw Camp Kesem’s table with a banner of people cheering “Love kids, hate cancer,” she immediately knew it was something she wanted to be involved in.
Four years later, Hurley-Heil has been a counselor each summer of college and was a co-director with Babcock this year. The experience with Camp Kesem has been “life-changing,” she said.
The biggest thing that campers and counselors get out of Camp Kesem is the sense of community, Hurley-Heil said. It’s a sense of understanding and being around people who have different stories but all relate to what someone’s going through.
“There’s a saying from Camp Kesem, ‘Under the same moon and stars,’ so even when you leave camp, you are still with all of those people who are there to support you throughout the year,” Hurley-Heil said.
Every summer, Camp Kesem has a time called “empowerment,” which gives campers a chance to share with others about their experience having a parent who’s been impacted or lost to cancer.
During this time, kids are usually posed with a question like, “Why do you Camp Kesem?” or “How has your parent or guardian’s cancer affected you?”
The campers are never forced to share but are always welcome to speak about their experience with others who understand what they’re going through, Raibman said.
Babcock’s favorite memory from SU’s camp this year was at the end of empowerment when the campers and counselors linked arms together and sang “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers. During this moment, Hurley-Heil pulled Babcock aside and told her to look at what they helped create this year — the look on the kids’ faces had made it all worth it.
“After this moment of vulnerability and having these difficult conversations, it was so special to just stand back for a second and watch everyone,” Babcock said.
Szvetecz heard about Camp Kesem through the same tabling as Hurley-Heil during her freshman year, where she started out as a counselor before becoming one of the co-directors for this year.
Since being involved with Camp Kesem through SU, Szvetecz’s outlook on resilience has changed after seeing how wise and emotionally mature the campers are. After going through her own experience with her mother’s cancer diagnosis, Szvetecz realized how much strength it takes to go through that experience, she said.
“People just want to talk about their loved ones, obviously not everyone is going to want to jump to share personal details, but in my experience, you just want to keep that person’s spirit alive,” Szvetecz said.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article said Camp Kesem was founded 26 years ago and misstated Sudha Hurley-Heil’s name. Camp Kesem’s SU chapter was started in 2015, and Sudha Hurley-Heil is the correct name. The Daily Orange regrets this error.
