We have had a busy summer of community programming. Here is an update on an outing with one of our favourite partners, Camp Ooch. In June, Magicana, in conjunction with Camp Oochigeas (affectionally known as Camp Ooch) held a special session of My Magic Hands in a “Morning full of Magic”, a rotating magic workshop.
Camp Ooch is a privately-funded organization with a mandate to support children and their families living with cancer. Programs are designed so children can escape to a magical place filled with the fun, laughter and bonding spirit of summer camp. Ooch has now grown and evolved to provide many opportunities throughout the year for kids to forget about illness and treatment, and to just be a kid. The “Morning Full of Magic” was exactly that.
Magicana was invited to provide a magic workshop for campers but instead of our traditional classroom style, we made it more flexible to accommodate the comings and goings of day campers. The wonderful Ooch camp counsellors rounded up “day campers” and brought them to a converted-conference-now-magic room for a busy rotation of magic workshops from 9AM to 1PM.
What a delight to see families join their kids in the workshop where they learned new magic tricks as a team. Children worked independently, too, as there were many Ooch camp counsellors on site to assist Julie Eng, seasoned My Magic Hands instructor (who has been teaching magic to children in hospitals for over ten years), who led this particular workshop.
Petra Kovacs, In-Hospital Program Manager for Camp Oochigeas, commented, “I know the kids were super excited about the day. Even the parents were impressed with not only your magic but your patience and individual attention you gave to all the kids who attended!”
But the best comment? It was from a nine-year-old receiving treatment for her cancer, who turned to look up to her father as they left hand-in-hand and exclaimed, “That was awesome!” What more could we possibly ask for?