About Us

Our Mission

Imagine

…you’re a 10-year-old boy with cancer and can’t play basketball with your friends

…you’re 3-years-old, have cancer and have never met other children outside the hospital

…your sibling has cancer and you can’t bring friends home for fear of infection

…your child has cancer

When a child is diagnosed with cancer, the pain and suffering they endure is unfathomable.  It also turns the entire family’s world upside down in ways never before imagined.

Sunrise Day Camp–Long Island is the world’s first full-summer day camp for children with cancer and their siblings, provided completely free of charge.

Providing memorable summers since 2006 for children ages 3 1/2–16 (up to 18 for our Long Island programs), Sunrise Day Camps bring the simple pleasures of childhood back to children struggling with cancer, changing months of loneliness and isolation into summers filled with sunshine, laughter and happiness. And because Sunrise is a day camp, it does all this while allowing the children to continue their medical treatment and enjoy the comfort and safety of their own homes at night. There are currently eight Day Camps  — three in New York (Long Island, Pearl River & Staten Island), three in Israel (Beit Yehoshuah, Be’er Sheva & Ramat Yochanan), Horizon Day Camp in Baltimore, MD and Aurora Day Camp in Atlanta, GA.  

Sunrise Association Day Camps are affiliated with 36 renowned hospitals and medical centers. Sunrise Sundays and Fun-days offer children exciting activities and events when school is not in session; Sunrise on Wheels is a one-of-a-kind program that provides hours of Sunrise-fun to children undergoing treatment in pediatric oncology units of participating hospitals.

Sunrise Day Camp began as a “dream” of Sunrise Association President & CEO Arnie Preminger.  After attending a benefit concert for Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp (a sleep-away camp for children with life-threatening illness), the dreaming began.  Having built and operated summer day camps for more than 30 years at the Friedberg JCC, Arnie researched the existence of summer-long day camps for children with cancer, but to his surprise, found none.

After intensive research and planning, the first Sunrise Day Camp was opened on Long Island in 2006 – the first and only day camp in the world, offered free of charge, for children with cancer and their siblings.  Four renowned pediatric oncology facilities had signed on as affiliates, one million dollars had been raised, and the campgrounds prepared. That summer 96 children, including siblings, rediscovered the magic of friendship and the joy of play at the Henry Kaufmann Campground in Wheatley Heights – all free of charge. The sounds of medical monitors were replaced with laughter, and the feelings of cold machines and sharp needles quickly disappeared with warm hugs from counselors and new friends.

Unlike similar sleep-away camps that are offered for only 1-2 weeks, Sunrise allows children in active treatment to continue with their home doctors, while attending camp each day. This unique concept allows children the comfort of sleeping in their own beds each night – a comfort not only for the campers, but for their parents as well.

Parents have peace of mind when their children attend Sunrise. All activities at camp are designed with special features to best accommodate chronically ill children, with medical personnel always available to provide expert care if needed.

Sunrise Day Camp-Long Island is a proud member of the Sunrise Association, whose mission is to bring back the joys of childhood to children with cancer and their siblings worldwide. Sunrise accomplishes this through the creation and oversight of welcoming, inclusive summer day camps, year-round programs and in-hospital recreational activities, all offered free of charge.

Sunrise Day Camp-Long Island is a program of a program of the Sunrise Association and the Friedberg JCC, a beneficiary agency of UJA-Federation of New York.

For additional Sunrise Association Day Camp locations, please visit sunrisedaycamp.org