The art of surviving: B.A.S.E Camp in Maitland

When 7-year-old Marlie walked through the doors of Swoope Studios on Friday, friends called out her name as they rushed up to greet her.

Having been absent on and off during the week because she wasn’t feeling well, Marlie didn’t want to miss the fun that Sandy Bonus’ Fine Arts Theatre/Art Camp provides children like her: a week of fun, worry-free creative expression and a chance to just be a normal kid.

“She gets the opportunity to be herself and doesn’t have to answer any questions about why she doesn’t have hair or why she has scars,” said Sarah Dodson, Marlie’s mother. “She doesn’t have to answer those questions, because everyone’s just like her.”

Putting on a show

Joining 10 other campers — local children with cancer, survivors of the disease and siblings — Marlie braved the rain, and her returning cancer, to join her friends for the last night of B.A.S.E Camp American Childhood Cancer Organization’s seventh annual fine arts camp in Maitland, created by Sandy Bonus and Day Gigliotti.

In addition to creating memory books containing each child’s short and long-term goals, as well as their creative drawings and statements, the campers produce and perform a play with puppets to culminate the week’s festivities.

This year’s play, called “Peppe the Lamplighter,” told the story of a boy who is ashamed of a job he took that his father doesn’t approve of so he could help his family.

“The whole week is really about feeling normal, having fun and learning some art terms,” Bonus said of the camp that is free for families. “We go over our goals and show the kids how they should gravitate toward open doors, not closed ones.”

This year’s performance was a little different. Due to the rain, the show was moved inside where all of the volunteers, children and parents huddled together in the tight space of the studio to listen to the pre-recorded audio of the play, as campers chowed down on desserts.

When a camper’s character voice came on, the camper smiled and laughed and raised her hand to acknowledge who was speaking.

Providing constant support

“We always choose a play that inspires the kids to overcome challenges,” Bonus said. “It all ends happy…. The whole week is about the process, not the show. We can’t put that kind of pressure on them. The fact that we got rained out made it all the more exciting to the kids.”

B.A.S.E Camp, which stands for Believe, Achieve, Support and Educate, recently joined forces with the American Childhood Cancer Organization. The Maitland camp is just one of more than 23 programs that B.A.S.E Camp, in operation for 29 years, offers. Providing meals, money, donations and support groups are among the countless others.

“Everything we do is a diversion,” said Terri Jones, founder and president of B.A.S.E Camp. “We want the children to focus on the good in their lives, not the bad.”

In the past, funding the fine arts camp came from Gigliotti and Bonus’ pockets, but this year more than $1,000 was raised through private donations and the selling of ad space in a program for the production.

Touching lives

Diagnosed when she was 3, Marlie came out of her two-year remission three weeks ago when she went in for her three-month routine MRI. She is diagnosed with pineoblastoma, a rare, malignant brain tumor.

For her mom, B.A.S.E Camp means the world to them now and always.

“B.A.S.E Camp is our support system, absolutely,” Dodson said. “Not only do they help us financially, but they have these events … This is Marlie’s family. This is her cancer family.”

For more photos from Friday’s event, visit wpmobserver.com

How to get involved

B.A.S.E Camp is holding its 1st Childhood Cancer Awareness Walk on Saturday, Sept. 25 at 9 a.m. at Cranes Roost in Altamonte Springs to commemorate Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. For more information on this event, as well as how to get involved with B.A.S.E Camp, visit www.basecamp.org