By Jamie North
MIFFLINBURG — Even during the darkest days of her cancer treatment, Kelsey Kuhns thought of other patients at Geisinger’s Janet Weis Children’s Hospital, including asking her mother for $5 so she could buy teddy bears at the gift store for the children alone in their rooms.
“As we took her for a walk around the unit — just to get her out of bed — she would peek in other rooms and see children lying in bed with no parents by their side,” said Kelsey’s mother, Tina Kuhns, of Mifflinburg. “It always broke her heart. I don’t believe she ever realized how sick she was, because she was always thinking about other people’s needs.”
Three years after Kelsey, 12, succumbed to leukemia, her legacy of helping others continues through the work of her family and the Mifflinburg community.
Kelsey’s Dream, a nonprofit organization established by her younger sister, Kylie, 11, has made great strides in just two years of existence by helping cancer patients at the Janet Weis hospital adjust to their treatment with snack packs and gift bags, as well as helping Camp Dost — a summer camp for cancer patients — fund some of its activities like the annual opening night carnival.
Much of the fundraising was accomplished through last year’s fall festival in Mifflinburg, where the community and local businesses came together to sell baked goods, homemade soups and craft items, as well as offer donations. The festival was anchored by entertainment and games for children.
Kelsey’s Fall Festival returns Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Mifflinburg Veterans of Foreign Wars grounds along Route 45 with even more activities, food and crafts, according to Mrs. Kuhns. Featured activities will include hay rides, a cake wheel, inflatable sumo wrestling, puppet show and dance recital, which will involve Kylie.
More than 40 businesses and community organizations have stepped forward to help sponsor the festival, according to Mrs. Kuhns.
The most anticipated treat, Mrs. Kuhns said, is the homemade apple butter that sparked the rapid growth of the festival. She said the apple butter boil begins this evening to prepare for up to seven kettles of apple butter for the festival.
The idea for the festival originated when Kylie came home from Camp Dost, which she attended with Kelsey for several years as her guest sibling, and told her parents about the funding cuts. Kylie said she wanted to help because the camp meant so much to her sister and the other patients, some as young as 5.
“When Kylie talked about doing something to help Camp Dost, her grandfather had the idea to do an apple butter boil,” Mrs. Kuhns said. “When people started to hear about what we were doing, offers of food donations and volunteer help just started coming in.”
Since then, the idea for the festival and creation of Kelsey’s Dream have been a blessing for the family, according to Kylie.
“It’s wonderful to see how great this has become,” she said. “The community has really come together to make a difference in a lot of lives, just as Kelsey tried to do every day of her life. This has been a great way to keep her memory alive.”
Adding to this year’s celebration was a special moment earlier this week involving Kylie, who was Kelsey’s stem cell donor, and the Mifflinburg Area High School girls soccer team. The team honored Kelsey, an avid soccer player who would’ve been a freshman this year, by making Kylie an honorary captain Tuesday before a game.
“We had talked as a team about doing something special for Kelsey’s Dream,” said Cowell Gemberling, the soccer coach. “We knew the community had been behind it, so we wanted to do our part. A lot of our girls played with and against Kelsey when they were younger, and the freshmen players were friends with her. Kelsey more than likely would’ve been on this team, so this was very special to us.”
Gemberling said the team also is managing the cake wheel at the festival, including each player providing four cakes. A few other girls are volunteering in other capacities, such as dressing up in costumes and managing a crafts stand.
From last year’s festival, Kelsey’s Dream was able to fund the opening carnival for Camp Dost, purchase 230 T-shirts for campers and counselors and provide 100 fleece-knot blankets. The organization also helped to start the snack pack program at the Janet Weis hospital so patients would have something small to eat in between treatments.
“When Kelsey was on steroids, she was always hungry, and she often had to wait at the hospital all day without getting a snack,” Mrs. Kuhns said. “It was so popular, even cancer patients who were not eating wanted to have one.”
Additionally, the organization has established a Teddies To Go program for newly diagnosed cancer patients at Geisinger, where children receive a kit to make their own stuffed animal. Mrs. Kuhns said the group would like to create a similar program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where Kelsey also went for treatment.
For information on Kelsey’s Fall Festival and the work of Kelsey’s Dream, visit www.kelseysdream.org.
