CONY members celebrate their record donation of $265,593.34 to Camp Good Days for 2022. Since 2012, CONY members have raised $1,226,506.91 for the nonprofit camp for children with cancer.
Campgrounds are places where families make wonderful memories to last a lifetime, but many independently owned and operated campgrounds affiliated with CampNewYork.com also host fundraising events to support Camp Good Days and Special Times, a Mendon, N.Y.-based nonprofit organization that offers free camps, special activities and other services for children suffering from cancer.
Special camps are also available for adults with specific conditions, such as women’s oncology camps and prostate cancer camps for men, according to a release.
Campgrounds affiliated with CampNewYork.com have collectively raised over $1 million for Camp Good Days over the past decade.
Here’s a sampling of several New York campgrounds that are organizing fundraising activities for Camp Good Days this summer:
Camp Chautaqua in Mayville: This campground will host its annual auction for Camp Good Days on the weekend of Aug. 18-20. “We have people not only from New York but from surrounding states that come every year to support our auctions for Camp Good Days,” said park owner Matt Anderson.
Nickerson Catskill Mountain Campground in Gilboa: While this campground raises money for Camp Good Days throughout the summer camping season, special fundraising events are scheduled in June and July. They include a Camp Good Days Jail event on June 10, when the campground will collect donations to lock people up in the jail. “Those scoundrels can either pay a donation to be released or pay to have someone take their place,” said Rosemary Celelli. On the weekend of July 28-30, the campground will host several activities to raise money for Camp Good Days, including a color run, a silent auction, a luminary sale, and a survivor celebration party. “All season long, we will be doing raffles in the store,” Celelli said, adding that all of the proceeds from the park’s golf cart rental will also be donated to Camp Good Days.
Sleepy Hollow Lake Campground in Akron: This campground plans to raise money for Camp Good Days by hosting a Camp Carnival on the first Saturday of August. The carnival will include a DJ, face painting, a corn hole tournament, a basket auction, a bounce house, games and a pie-eating competition, among other activities.
Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park in Mexico: This park will have fundraising duck races for Camp Good Days on July 15 and Aug. 19.
West Canada Creek Campground in Poland: This campground is planning several fundraising activities for the summer in addition to its annual auction, which takes place on the last Sunday of September with all proceeds going to Camp Good Days.
Whispering Pines Campsites & RV Park in Greenfield Center: This campground has several fundraising events for Camp Good Days, including an ice cream basket raffle, with tickets going on sale June 18-24; a bake sale on June 24 with all proceeds being donated to Camp Good Days; the park’s second annual Vendor Fair on July 22 and a silent auction on July 29; a night in Italy fundraising dinner Aug. 5 with a fully catered Italian dinner with a DJ.
Matt Anderson, of Camp Chautauqua, who also serves on the board of directors of Campground Owners of New York (CONY), which hosts CampNewYork.com, said he hoped that the fundraising initiatives launched by participating campgrounds would inspire others, both inside and outside the campground industry, to support Camp Good Days’ efforts.
Anderson himself is so supportive of Camp Good Days’ mission that he volunteers on their board of directors in addition to serving on CONY’s board. While his own son, Noah, does not suffer from cancer, he was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease at age 4, which required him to be hospitalized and to undergo costly treatments, all of which helped Anderson to develop a special empathy for parents of children with cancer.
Many other campground owners across New York have similar compassion for children who suffer from cancer and their families, which has led them to organize annual fundraising events to support Camp Good Days.
“We dedicate all of our 50/50 raffles to Camp Good Days and Special Times,” said John Tinelli, who owns Triple R Camping Resort and Trailer Sales in Franklinville with his wife, Jennifer, adding that they are hosting both silent and live auctions for Camp Good Days over Fourth of July weekend.
“We have customers that camp here at Triple R because of our support for Camp Good Days,” Tinelli said, adding, “ There is no better cause than to help a child through as terrifying an experience as cancer. Now, with the camp also helping families including adults to get through cancer, there is all the more reason to support this fine organization. What’s really neat is when a customer comes up and introduces their child to us that went to Camp Good Days. There is no feeling like that. There are no words.”
Since they started supporting Camp Good Days in 2012, campgrounds affiliated with CampNewYork.com have raised more than $1 million to support the Mendon-based nonprofit organization, which provides all of its programs free of charge. For more information about Camp Good Days and Special Times, please visit its website at https://www.campgooddays.org/.
