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July 10, 2009

Program gives comfort, warmth to sick children

Mifflinburg program gives comfort, warmth to children with cancer

By Rick Dandes

MIFFLINBURG -- For some children with cancer, blankets provide needed warmth. For others, comfort.

Kelsey Kuhns was cold when she attended Camp Dost, a pediatric cancer camp in Millville.

She had gone to the weeklong camp since she was first diagnosed at age 5 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a terminal form of cancer of the white blood cells, which normally fight infections.

For many years the camp didn't have enough blankets, said her mother, Tina Kuhns, of Mifflinburg.

"When you're a cancer patient, receiving treatments, you sometimes get chilly," she said of her daughter.

Then one day, Kelsey went to her cabin and found extra blankets on the bed.

"This made her very happy, particularly since she was so sick," Tina said. "She loved those blankets. That's why this is such a special program for us. Because we know that Kelsey, and kids like her, really like it."

In the program, Tina and others will sew blankets Wednesday to be given to children attending Camp Dost or receiving a bone marrow transplant at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

The program is a part of Kelsey's Dream, a foundation dedicated to helping children with cancer and other severe illnesses, and in memory of Kelsey, who died in 2005 after an eight-year battle with her disease.

"We did this because we believed this was what Kelsey would have wanted," Tina said of the foundation.

Kylie Kuhns, Kelsey's 10-year-old sister, came up with the blanket idea while talking with Kelsey at Camp Dost, which draws about 100 children each summer.

The goal is to provide every child who attends Camp Dost, or is a bone marrow patient at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, with a blanket from Kelsey's Dream.

A group meets the third Wednesday of every month at Hoover's Bernina, a sewing shop in Mifflinburg, Tina said.

"Last year, our second year doing this, about 12 people showed up and we only did 97 fleece blankets in total for camp and for the hospital in Philadelphia," she said.

That wasn't enough.

The group needs more people to make more blankets.

"Quilts take quite a while to make," Tina said. "We've had people drop off homemade blankets as well. Some people in Harrisburg found out about what we do and donated fleece blankets, or else we would not have had enough for cancer camp this year. We had a Brownie troop from out of the area make a fleece one and ship it to us."

Some of the blankets are custom made.

"We did ask this year to get a boy-girl list and an age range, so we could separate them, so a little boy won't be stuck with a pink blanket," Tina said. "It worked out pretty well. They all get a blanket with a little tag on it, imprinted with the Kelsey's Dream logo."

Blankets made Wednesday will be presented to patients at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

"We'll ship them right out," Tina said. "We can't stop making them because as kids go into the hospital for transplants or treatments, we want to hand them a blanket."

Kelsey Kuhns inspired both young and old with her courage and determination.

"Kelsey loved life. She might have been the sickest child in the ward, but she always cared about others," Tina said. "This is what we learned from her. This is what the foundation does."

Tina says she is surprised by how fast Kelsey's Dream has grown. The foundation is expanding to cover children's hospitals all over the East Coast.

Last year it raised about $25,000 in donations and from products sold. The goal this year is $40,000.

"Kylie is always thinking, What can we do most?' How can we help more children?' Tina said. "She's the real mover in this organization, our dream leader. Of course, it is all a labor of love."

n E-mail comments to rdandes@dailyitem.com

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