Camp Simcha Chai Lifeline shut down after flu outbreak

GLEN SPEY – The current two-week session of summer camp for children with cancer at Camp Simcha in Glen Spey is ending five days early as the result of an outbreak of viral flu.

Since the children, ranging in ages from five to 19 years old, have compromised immune systems because of their illnesses, Rabbi Simcha Scholar, director of the camp’s parent group, Chai Lifeline, said it was decided to end the session early.

“The doctors believe that it’s not containable anymore in our isolation unit so the doctors made a decision that for the betterment of the remaining campers to end the session early so they can go home,” Scholar told MidHudsonNews.com.

The last two two-week camp sessions will be held as scheduled.

Camp Simcha provides medically supervised overnight camp experiences for children battling cancer and other hematologic illnesses. The campers, who are provided with all expenses paid transportation to and from home, as well as the two-week camp stay at no cost, come from 50 locations around the world including, among others, Israel, Australia, South Africa and the United States.

The camp serves about 450 children every summer in the only kosher overnight camp for seriously ill children. The kids “trade hospital rooms and doctors’ offices for summers of fun, friendship, and hope,” said Rabbi Scholar.

Source: Mid-Hudson News