ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Camp Enchantment offers a time for children and counselors to step away from their everyday battles.

Hayley Valencia, a counselor at Camp Enchantment, says she has never been to camp or even cared about it. But she says Camp Enchantment is different, not just by what they do, but by how they are able to connect.

“I mean, a kid the other day, oh, he’s actually a counselor now, he basically said camp is like heaven, and I can’t explain it any better,” said Valencia.

From the outside, Camp Enchantment seems like your regular summer camp. But, inside there’s much more than a summer feeling, it’s a space to escape real life.

“Going through cancer diagnosis completely derails anybody’s life, but especially these kids, as they’re growing into the humans they’re gonna be. All of a sudden, they have this cancer diagnosis, and their world is flipped upside down, and camp is a place where they can finally find friends who know what they feel, counselors who know what they feel,” said Jane Sheraden, lead counselor of Camp Enchantment.

Counselors like Valencia know how hard that diagnosis can be.

“I was playing in a Division II college, and I was doing great there. I made my home, and I started getting real sick. Every two weeks I came down with something. It was really challenging, trying to be a college athlete, getting my grades in, and just slowly getting sick and you not knowing. That really, it really got to me,” said Valencia.

She says doctors were able to find a diagnosis quickly.
 
“Soon as I got my blood test, they were like, you need to go to the ER. You’re running out of blood. I said, all right. So I went to the ER, stayed there for a while, finally figured out what was wrong with me. And we found out that I had acute myeloid leukemia,” said Valencia.

Sheraden says Valencia is setting an example.

“They can look up to these older people and see that it’s gonna be OK, and I can be awesome again and just have a chance. It just gives a place for them to be free and not have to worry,” said Sheraden.

If there’s one message Valencia wants to send to other kids in her shoes:

“Keep your head up. You are important, even though it seems like you’re just a plain Jane, you are very special, no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve been through. You have a story, and you be proud of it, and you be proud of who you are,” said Sheraden.

Camp Enchantment is a free week-long camp. If you would like to donate, click here.