Surf & Paddle camp is the ‘highlight of the summer’ for young cancer survivors
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“We’re beating them!” 10-year-old Randy Reina shouted with a smile as his outrigger canoe pulled ahead of a kayak in Upper Newport Bay. He adjusted his paddle grip for a long stroke, sending water wooshing behind.
Randy, along with other young cancer survivors and their siblings, was among roughly 20 who took part in a Miracles For Kids’ Surf & Paddle Summer Camp session on Tuesday.
The program included surfing at Bolsa Chica State Beach on Friday and another scheduled for next month at Blackies near the Balboa Pier.
Miracles For Kids board member and surfer Tom Swanecamp was inspired by the “healing characteristics of being on the water” when he developed the summer program about 15 years ago.
He said it’s the “highlight of the summer” for many of the low-income families with children battling serious illness whom the Irvine-based nonprofit supports with housing, financial assistance and counseling.
“That’s our mission — to put smiles on faces,” Swanecamp said. “And for some parents, it’s a complete day off where they know their kids are going to be taken care of, so they can do some things at home or take a vacation day, run errands or just be moms and dads on a much-needed break.”
Other parents opt to take part in the action, like Randy’s mother, Maribel Reina. Paddling behind her son, she called seeing him full of vigor, laughter and appreciation for the outdoors a blessing.
Three years ago, leukemia had left him too weak to do much of anything, much less exercise, Reina said through an interpreter.
By then, doctors in Tijuana said there was nothing more they could do and advised treatment at Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
Reina said it would have been practically impossible for the family to afford living in the U.S. without Miracles for Kids. They are residing in the nonprofit’s supportive housing in Orange.
Clarissa Osuna of Ontario, who also attended the paddling session alongside daughter Raylee Osuna, 9, quit her job after Raylee was diagnosed with leukemia so she could care for her.
She thanked Miracles for Kids for covering the family’s expenses.
The first year after the diagnosis was especially hard on Raylee, her parents said. She had to give up her favorite pastime — hosting pool parties for her friends.
“Everything happened super quick,” Osuna said. “I remember when she wouldn’t be able to do water play at all. You can’t even be near water because you get infections.”
After a liver transplant, Raylee is once again a playful and bubbly child. For her, the Miracles for Kids excursion proved a triumphant return to the water.
“Getting out and doing these things, we try to take advantage of every opportunity we get,” Osuna said.
