ST. GEORGE — A camp to help children who have a parent with cancer could come to Southern Utah if Dixie State University can pull in enough votes by Friday night.
Dixie State is one of 14 finalists to become a chapter for Camp Kesem, an non-profit organization that serves children impacted by a parent’s cancer. In order to become one of the new chapters for Camp Kesem, Dixie State will need to make it into the top four of the voting leader board. As of Thursday evening, Dixie State was ranked sixth with about 1,500 votes needed to overtake the No. 4 spot.
“We don’t need to even get first place; even if we get up to fourth place and can hold ourselves there by the end of Friday, we will be golden in securing a spot with Camp Kesem,” said Sage Hafen, a student at Dixie State from St. George.
Hafen is the one who started the application process with her club, Rural Health Scholars, to start a Dixie State chapter for Camp Kesem.
Having a Camp Kesem chapter at Dixie State is necessary, Hafen said, because of all the families who will be coming to Dixie Regional Medical Center’s new cancer clinic in St. George.
“I believe it is not only important to provide for these parents and adults who have cancer, but to also help their children realize they are OK and that they’re not alone,” Hafen said.
Camp Kesem chapters are run by college students. There is a Camp Kesem chapter at Southern Utah University, but Hafen said she wasn’t able to be part of it or volunteer because it was only open to SUU students. If Dixie State becomes one of the new Camp Kesem chapters, Hafen said they will likely work together with SUU for the Camp Kesem summer camp in Southern Utah.
People can vote once a day and once per device for the new Camp Kesem chapter at vote.campkesem.org. If you share your vote on Facebook, that counts as another vote.
“All it really takes is 10 seconds to go to the website and vote,” Hafen said. “I think as long as the community can come together and recognize the importance of this, I do believe that we can make it.”
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