Meet Our Philanthropic Partner

 

 

camp-good-days

In 1979, Gary Mervis’ beloved daughter, Teddi was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor at the age of nine, and after traveling the country looking for answers, he took it into his own hands to help. What bothered Teddi the most wasn’t the radiation therapy or the craniotomy, but the heartbreaking loneliness she felt as she dealt with this terrible disease seemingly on her own. Aside from the unconditional love and support she received from her parents, Teddi felt isolated at school and in the neighborhood because there simply wasn’t anyone she could relate to—nobody truly knew what she was going through.

Distraught to see his daughter live like this, Mervis founded Camp Good Days and Special Times, a not-for-profit organization located in Rochester New York that seeks to provide children with cancer the opportunity to come together, and be with one another. Now decades later, Camp Good Days has served more than 45,000 campers from 22 states and 29 countries—but more importantly, they’re provided a bright spot, a glimmer of hope, to thousands of innocent lives struggling to comprehend what’s going on as they fight for their lives everyday.

Camp Good Days and Special times is a primarily volunteer-based organization, and relies on the generous donations of many to provide their campers with the tender care they need to keep fighting. As our philanthropic partner this year, SJFCAMA is dedicated and motivated to fight with right along side these innocent lives, and WE NEED YOUR HELP!