When cancer meets camp: How one Virginia nonprofit creates joy in hard times

Camp Fantastic, which takes place every year in Front Royal for kids who have received cancer treatment, is aptly named. 

Schools across the country are back in session, and kids everywhere are pining for the carefree days of summer. Fortunately, the kids and teens that attended this year’s summer camp at Camp Fantastic at the Northern Virginia 4-H Center created memories and relationships that will last forever and help ease the transition back into a regimented learning environment.

Designed for kids with chronic or terminal illnesses, Virginia-based nonprofit Special Love has been putting on the weeklong Camp Fantastic for kids who have received cancer treatment within the past five years (or within seven of a bone marrow transplant) every August since 1983. And while Camp Fantastic is Special Love’s hallmark event, the organization also offers many services to families affected by cancer throughout the year. 

Dogwood spoke with Elena Jeannotte, the executive director for Special Love, as well as Miranda O’Dell, whose son, Rex, has previously attended Camp Fantastic twice. We discussed the lifelong friendships the camp fosters, the invaluable experiences it offers both campers and parents, and its newest offering, the Hopeful Hearts: Parents Supporting Parents program.

The following Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

Dogwood: Tell us a little bit about what makes Camp Fantastic such a unique place. What are some of the things that campers experience there?

Elena Jeannotte: One of the things that makes Camp Fantastic so special is that children who are going through a similar experience get to meet other kids like them. Maybe they’re the only one in their school that has cancer or has faced something like this, but at Camp Fantastic, everyone there has been through a similar experience. 

But Camp Fantastic isn’t all about cancer. It’s all about kids having a great time. It’s kind of like a little bit of a throwback to an old school camp, because we’re la cell phone-free environment and the kids just really get to spend time together. 

What sorts of transformations have you seen in the campers from the beginning of the week to the end?

Elena Jeannotte: I think, especially for first-time campers, many of them are hesitant. Many of the parents are even more hesitant. These children are certainly watched over by their parents at a different level than a child who might not have had that. So we’ve seen both sides, kids come who are a little bit nervous, and then they’re going to get on the bus to go home and they’re crying because they don’t want to leave and they are going to miss their new friends that they’ve made. And similarly with parents, there’s always a nervousness when you drop a child off. We’re really lucky at Camp Fantastic that we’re fully staffed by medical staff from the National Institutes of Health, so we have the best people caring for our kids.

Can you tell us how your son’s cancer journey has impacted you as a parent and what role Camp Fantastic has played in that for your family?

Elena Jeannotte:  I can start and then Miranda can fill in the blanks. Yes, we really want to build a community for the families who are going through this. One of the things that we did was ask for some feedback from our families, and one of the things that we saw was that our support for parents really needed beefing up. Parents wanted more engagement, more interaction, more connection with one another.

And so initially we were going to connect new parents going through the journey with parents who have already lived it, like Miranda. And it was a huge undertaking, and we saw that this great cancer organization, Cancer Hope Network, was already doing this and were about to launch a pediatric version of their adult peer-to-peer mentoring. So we called them up and they were gracious enough to say they’d love to partner with us.

Miranda O’Dell:  Mentoring is something that’s been on my mind and on my heart for a long time, pretty much since we first started this. Just being able to talk to other moms that had been there and being able to ask them questions and get advice from them or just being able to vent to them. I knew that that was something that I wanted to, to kind of pay it forward, when Rex’s treatment wasn’t so intense anymore. Obviously, probably the worst thing a parent can go through in their lives is have a child that’s diagnosed with cancer. But knowing that something good is coming out of it, that I can share my experiences, the knowledge that I’ve gained, the resources that I have, I can now give back to others that are just starting out in this journey is the silver lining in a dark cloud. It’s been very fulfilling for me. 

Want more information on Camp Fantastic or Special Love and its monthly in-person and virtual support offerings for families navigating cancer? Click this link. And to stay up to date on info for Camp Fantastic 2026, stay tuned here.

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