Last week I told you camp felt like an empathy utopia. This week, I want to show you what it actually takes to build one, from the perspective of the mental health team. At UKANDU, there are actually a lot of teams, but I’m part of a special kind of magic – the Rainbow Team. 

Behind every ice cream bar and every glitter-cannon dance party, there’s a team quietly holding the weight of the week. At Camp UKANDU, that’s the Rainbow Team — our mental health team — and each year, I got to be part of it.

Here’s a peek at what one week of family camp looked like from the inside:

● 11 different support groups, for kids, siblings, and parents navigating grief, fear, and everything cancer touches. Times 2.5 hours = 27.5 hours of support!

● 30 hours of “walk and talks” — brief, 30-minute therapy sessions, often literally on the move, meeting people exactly where they were (sometimes on a trail, sometimes mid-tears, sometimes both)

● Countless quieter moments of coaching, love, and belonging that never made it onto a schedule

And in between all of that? We had ruptures. We had repairs. We had big feelings and tough behaviors that needed steady hands, not quick fixes. We had real, serious conversations. We held conversations about safety, about whether we needed to call the police, about hospitalization, about mandatory reporting. This is not soft, easy work. It is precise, careful, high-stakes work, done by people who love these families fiercely enough to do it exceptionally.

And through every bit of it? Love and triumph. Kids who are actively battling cancer, laughing until they cried. Parents who arrived exhausted and left feeling seen. A whole community choosing wholehearted belonging, again and again, even when it was hard. Especially when it was hard.

This is the part of camp people don’t always see, but it’s the part that makes the magic safe. You can’t have an “empathy utopia” without people willing to sit in the hard stuff first.

I am so proud to have been part of this team. I am so proud of every family who let us in.

Want to support this work or get involved with Camp UKANDU? Learn more here.

With deep respect for every family who showed up exactly as they were.