COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – For more than three decades, the student government at Airport High School has hosted an annual charity drive to raise money to send kids with cancer to summer camp.
“It makes me a proud principal and makes me smile because everyone out here has partnered in this charity drive and is showing love, showing heart to someone they don’t even know,” said Matt Schilit, the school’s principal.
The Camp Kemo Charity Drive is a week-long drive where students raise funds to donate to the Prisma Health Children’s Hospital Camp Kemo program. Students pay either one, two or five dollars to participate in a variety of activities.
“Three-on-three volleyball, a little bit of activities with our teachers, faculty, and staff going against our students in a variety of Olympic activities,” Schilit said.
During Camp Kemo, kids with cancer can participate in a color war, archery and camp dance. Most importantly, they can just be a kid.
“The goal of the camp is for them to be able to participate in camp-like programs,” said Caitlin Sullivan, the camp’s programs manager.
Physicians, nurses and volunteer staff run the camp and Sullivan said it allows kids to find friendship with those going through a similar experience.
“Just seeing them make friends and try new experiences and really get to do things that they thought they wouldn’t be able to do because they’re sick. It’s just one of the coolest things that we do,” Sullivan said.
Airport High School’s student body president, Abbie Roley, said they begin planning the charity drive a year in advance. They brainstorm games, activities and other creative ways to raise money. Roley said Camp Kemo holds a special meaning to many of the students.
“A lot of our student government members actually volunteer at the camp,” Roley said. “They’re counselors there and they meet a lot of the kids and get to know them so it makes this week a lot more special for us.”
The students loved being a part of the drive, spending a few dollars that go directly to a cause bigger than themselves.
“It’s a good idea that we are giving back to the community,” said senior Dakotah Murphy.
Local restaurants partnered with the school to donate a portion of their proceeds during the drive. The dollars added up, in the school’s 31 years of holding the charity drive, a district official said the school has donated more than $700,000 to Camp Kemo.
Schilit said seeing the work the students put in to make the drive happen year after year filled him with pride in his school.
“It’s about heart, you got to have heart. The adults have heart, the kids here have heart. This is the most inclusive environment I’ve ever been a part of. It’s just about helping others and sharing the love, sharing our heart,” Schilit said.
It has meant a great deal to those at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital who directly see the impact these donations have on the kids.
“Since they’ve been doing it for so long, they’ve just become kind of a reliable partner for us,” Sullivan said. “To be able to see kids kind of take this initiative and work so hard on a project, that means the world to us and we honestly couldn’t do it without them.”
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