The children (and us) spent their day involved in mostly engaged in active sessions. During Actor's Studio, the children acted out scenes from Fairy Tales. During Roots of Rhythm, the spend 45 minutes banging away on drums. During Mission Possible, they problem solved their way through team building challenges. The most memorable moments came at a time when the children where in a more passive mode.
One session is called Sound Off! During this session, the children have the opportunity to talk and ask questions with each as well as other cancer survivors on the Volunteer Panel. During my session with the kids, one question came up that went something like this;
"For those of you that have a brother or sister with cancer, would you trade places with them and take away their pain?"
I was in a group of 60 eleven and twelve year olds, about 45 of them had a sibling with cancer. Every single one of them that spoke, said that they would trade places, and take the cancer onto to themselves.
Some then turned the question around and asked;
"If you could give your cancer away, and give it to someone in your family, would you?"
Not a single person said yes.
I had goosebumps then. I have goosebumps now.
I told my wife this story later in the night, and she told me about what happened in the same session with 5 and 6 year olds.
The question was;
"What is the best thing about being in the hospital when you have to go in for treatments?"
One 6 year old boy spoke up and talked in a sweet innocent way that only a 6 year old can speak in and said;
"The best part about having to go to the hospital is that I got to meet God when I was in the hospital."
I had tears in my eyes then. I have tears in my eyes now.
This event is about so many things, but I think these two stories do a pretty good job of summing it up.
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