camp casey

today was a wonderful day. from the weather to the activites to the behavior of the girls (until we got home) was absolutely perfect.

today we participated in camp casey, horse riding therapy for kids battling cancer. pooka waffled a lot about whether she wanted to go or not. all day yesterday it was off, "i refuse to go." just before bedtime she changed her mind. of course, what she wanted was irrelevant, but anyway.
today she was very eager to get moving. she was a little shy at first, but as is typical pooka, she warmed up after a few minutes. anybody showing her adulation wins her over quickly, and the wranglers gushed over her name tag art and asked her to decorate theirs. she was good to go from that point on. there were some fun activities, and of course the riding. at the end of the day, molly the director, asked us to attend a girls only function in september (manicure, dinner, and a limo to the miss michigan pageant to see one of the counselors compete, all courtesy of camp casey!) and to attend another camp day. pooka can't wait for another chance to ride the horses.

it was great to see so many other kids who have beaten, or are in a healthy stage of the process of beating, cancer. it made a nice change from seeing all the kids at the clinic who usually don't look so robust. the counselors were so nice and genuine, and it was such a unique program. kisu and i both want to help support the program very much. maybe soon we'll be in a position to do so. meanwhile, we can at least spread the word. the newspaper is supposed to be running a story on monday. we were interviewed pretty extensively by the reporter.

*and here it is!