49 Camp Sunshine for Children With Life-Threatening Illnesses & Their Families Camp Sunshine in Maine is a retreat for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families. It runs year-round and provides recreation and group support and focuses on alleviating the strain a critical illness takes not only on the ill child, but on other members of the immediate family. There are no fees to attend the camp, but the families must provide their own transportation. Because the camp’s family focus is unique, families have traveled from all 50 states and 27 countries since the program was founded in 1984. Providing access to families is critical to making sure they can benefit from this opportunity. Over the years we have made grants of more than $150,000 to Camp Sunshine including a successful $20,000 challenge grant that resulted in the purchase of two new vans to transport families to Camp Sunshine from the local airports; to local hospitals from Camp Sunshine; and to treatment for medical emergencies that arise while families are attending the program. Over the years we have made grants responding to a myriad of important requests, but the bulk of our grants have been for transportation, as we want to make sure that as many families as possible have an opportunity to attend these incredible sessions. We received a Thank You Letter from a young boy and a separate one from his mother. This young child knew he was dying. He had a sibling who was jealous of all the attention his mother was giving him. His brother met the brother of another child who had lost a sibling to the same debilitating disease. After learning how guilty the other boy felt when his brother died, the brother of the boy writing the letter “understood.” At Camp Sunshine, the sick meet with the only people in the world who can truly understand what they are going through. Parents meet parents. Siblings of children with life-threatening illnesses meet siblings of other children with life-threatening illnesses. We have received many thank you letters through the years and the Executive Director of Camp Sunshine suggested that we might want to print another letter rather than printing this one year after year. I have decided to reprint this one because it says it all, but the two-page layout permits me to print one more.