Donate to Camp Get-A-Well-A

The History of Camp Get-A-Well-A®

Camp Get-A-Well-A Gang

The inspiration to start an in-hospital summer camp for kids first hit Kate Bach Davis in 1998, when she met a sick young girl named Willow. Willow was an angry 8-year-old girl undergoing cancer treatments. She refused to participate in the group activity that volunteer Kate was leading at a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona.

Willow told Kate, "I want to be at camp, but they MADE me come back to the hospital!" The little girl explained how she missed the swimming, camp crafts, marshmallow roasting, and time spent playing with her new camp friends.

The Vow to Help Kids

Willow's blood cell counts had dipped to dangerously low levels just 3 days before, so she had been airlifted from camp. Kate knew it wasn't possible for the girl to go back to summer camp, but she vowed to find another solution.

It was with that vow that the idea of an In-Hospital Summer Camp was born. Kate met Camp Get-A-Well-A co-founder, JoLanne Hanson, at St. Jude's in the year 2000, and together they developed an outline for the first-of-its-kind sterile summer camp for hospitalized children.

The Creation of Camp

Later that year, Kate received the Raising Arizona Award, presented by Target Stores, for her innovative co-creation of Camp Get-A-Well-A. In 2003 Camp Get-A-Well-A was recognized as a non-profit organization (501c3).

Kate and JoLanne continued to devote their evenings, weekends and vacations to camp, remaining non-paid volunteers through 2006. In 2007, JoLanne Hanson became Executive Director of Camp Get-A-Well-A. Kate Bach Davis remains involved as a Camp Get-A-Well-A supporter and volunteer.