Little Smiles & Camp Care

Little Smiles is Helping 200 Kids with Cancer at Camp Care this Week

Camp Care happens once a year in August and is held at Camp Lurecrest, Lake Lure, NC. Kids being kids for one week at Camp Care.

Camp CARE (Cancer Ain’t Really the End) provides a week long summer camp and year-round activities to children who have, or have had, cancer and their families in the Charlotte area. A child is first and foremost a child, not just a cancer patient. We provide support, fun and friendship throughout a family’s journey.

Our summer camp and activities throughout the year are for kids in all stages of their cancer treatment. This includes on or off treatment, in remission or fighting relapse. The program also addresses children with no symptoms or side effects, as well as, those with physical or mental challenges.

Little Smiles has been helping Camp Care for 12 years and it has been the most rewarding venture. From snacks, to capes, to karaoke night, to tutu’s for the male counselors, and whatever Carrie Keuten, Executive Director for Camp Care, asks for.

As you can see, the kids don’t look or act sick. They are just being kids and building friendships for life!

To experience a day at the camp is like taking a double drip of Hydration and Vitamins at Purifi IV! They all have the best attitudes, and the Counselors are fabulous with the kids. Love is really in the air and on Wednesdays, they celebrate the lives of children who have passed on. One year they released a dove in honor of each child who passed on. It was truly a celebration of their life. Another year they planted a tree for each child that had passed.

Camp Care is one of the many things Little Smiles does for our kids. But it is one of the most memorable activities we do every year. Little Smiles works through our nurses to provide what they feel the kids need to put a smile on their face, while they are in a hospital, hospice or home care.

Margi Kyle is the founder of Little SmilesNC. Started in 2010, it is a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization that strives to fulfill the dreams of children in local hospitals, hospices and shelters. Their mission statement: Little Smiles helps heal hearts and create little smiles by providing gifts and fun activities to children impacted by serious illness, homelessness or tragedy. Giving Kids the chance to be kids during difficult times! “We are Local, Hands-On and Immediate.”