Camp Ta-Kum-Ta celebrates 40 years of providing care and connection for children with cancer

Camp Ta-Kum-Ta first opened its cabin doors in the summer of 1984, welcoming children who were fighting cancer and their families — at no cost.

Forty years later, the camp now offers free year-round programming exclusively for kids who have or have had cancer, while continuing to bring 100 campers from Vermont and northern New York to their property in South Hero every August.

Vermont Public's Jenn Jarecki sat down with Camp Ta-Kum-Ta's Executive Director Dennis DePaul. This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.

Jenn Jarecki: For listeners that may not be too familiar with your story, how was Camp Ta-Kum-Ta founded and what sets it apart from other summer camps?

Dennis DePaul: So, Camp Ta-Kum-Ta was founded by this amazing group of people that was led by Sheara Billado, who was an oncology nurse at the hospital. She put together this group of people, which included Ted and Debbie Kessler, and we really consider the three of them like our core founders, but they will never admit that. They talked about the group, the group of them founded camp, which is a pretty amazing thing to have done. So, that group came together and decided to build a camp for children with cancer — or on the cancer journey — here in Vermont. It didn't exist here. And they felt like those kids needed a place to just be kids again.

Jenn Jarecki: So, campers engage in classic stuff like swimming, arts and crafts, you all have a ropes course. But you also say Ta-Kum-Ta offers once in a lifetime opportunities too. Can you give us some examples?

Dennis DePaul: Camp is a rather unique place. And people often ask, "Well, what exactly do you do together?" And the way I like to describe it is, the cancer journey — any cancer journey, whether it's children or adults — creates disconnection. Disconnection from their schools, disconnection from family members, disconnection from so many different things, even the parents get disconnected and the siblings get shuffled around. And camp creates opportunities to rebuild connection.

So yes, we have the traditional experiences — the ropes course, the swimming pool, arts and crafts. But then we also have very intentional connection-building experiences to bond our children, their siblings and their parents together in a way that's a little indescribable. By simply bringing people together, the cancer kind of drifts to the sidelines.

Jenn Jarecki: Camp Ta-Kum-Ta checks a lot of traditional summer camp boxes. But of course, some of your campers are undergoing medical treatment while at camp. So how do you balance providing oncological care and then, to your point, allowing campers and their families to just enjoy a fun week at the lake?

Dennis DePaul: We have a partnership, a really strong partnership, with UVM Medical, which we are deeply grateful for. The hem-onc [hematology and oncology] team at the hospital is truly amazing with our kids. And we have a partnership, so we work very closely with them.

So, by having them present on our site or overseeing what we're doing, they're monitoring throughout the day what the kids are doing and how they're feeling. We train our counselors to monitor throughout the day. If we have a particular child who's neutropenic, for example, with no immune system, we're taking temperatures all day long. And we know whether they're at the pool or at the ropes course or up in a hot air balloon, we will check and monitor them regularly. And that's just built into the fabric of our community. It's not made a big deal of, they don't get pulled out of the activity. It's just part of it.

Jenn Jarecki: What feedback have you heard from campers and families about their experiences at Camp Ta-Kum-Ta?

Dennis DePaul: I'm in my 27th year with camp. I've been around a long time. And I've been through many camp programs, back from when we were just a one week program to now when we do year round programs.

Each program has a closing ceremony of some kind where we just come together. And again, remember those opportunities to connect, we create a space where everyone gets to share how they felt about the time that we've spent together. And I couldn't count how many of those closing ceremonies I sat in and listened to a child say, "I'm so glad I got cancer so I got to come to Camp Ta-Kum-Ta." And there's not a dry eye in the house when that happens. And you're like, wait a minute, wait a minute — they're grateful that they got cancer so they could experience this? And then you have to catch your breath. And take a moment and say, "What have we done here?"

We've created this oasis of a space for these children to just be kids and not worry about that other stuff. We've got that, we're taking care of them. And they know that and they feel safe. So they just got to be them.

Jenn Jarecki: 40 years on, you've expanded your space and increased programming. So what's next for Camp Ta-Kum-Ta?

Dennis DePaul: So for us, you know, with what's next, we have really formalized our organization structurally. We are now accredited through the Children's Oncology Camping Association. And I'm very proud to say that our accreditation visit was last year, and for the first time in the agency's history, they accredited us with no recommendations for improvement. And they've never done that with an oncology camp before. And we were very proud of that fact. So, we need to maintain that level of excellence. So, that is number one right up there for us.

But we are also looking at how and what we can expand and what else can we offer. Some of our children in their cancer journey, because of their treatments, can't reach adulthood in a traditional way. And Camp Ta-Kum-Ta serves kids through high school, basically, and then our programs are kind of done. So, we're looking at young adult programs, because especially for those children who their treatments have changed their ability to operate in certain ways, we want to be able to help them still, so we're looking at what and how we can engage that. So that's kind of the next big thing on the horizon for us, is how can we serve that population.

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