The entrance to the Kaiserman JCC gymnasium in Wynnewood was lined with members of the Sixers Stixers drum line, keeping rhythm to welcome Sunrise Day Camp students as they arrived Monday in a mix of 76ers jerseys and formalwear.
The mixed attire summed up Sunrise’s campers agenda for the day: prom and a Sixers basketball clinic.
Sunrise Day Camp is a free summer camp for children with cancer and their siblings. The basketball clinic, in conjunction with the Sixers Youth Foundation, is just one of the many events held at the camp. Jennifer Rebetti, the senior director of Sunrise Day Camp in Philadelphia, said the goal is to make every day “the most magical day,” and “the magic was overflowing” in the penultimate day of summer camp.
“We found out last Wednesday that they would be joining us, and it’s been a week of excitement,” Rebetti said. “The lead up is ‘who’s coming, who are they going to meet?’ and at the end of the day I don’t think it matters who they meet, it just matters that the Sixers Youth Foundation is there for them again because every time, we love partnering with them, they’ve just been fantastic.”
While the campers enjoyed activities and games with the Jr. 76ers and Franklin the Dog, the real surprise came as Sunrise participants did their daily sendoff and were joined by the Sixers’ first-round draft pick Labaron Philon Jr.
The rookie met with the campers and signed autographs, later offering remarks about what it meant to him to be there.
“It means everything,” Philon said. “Being out here, being able to come out here and see the kids and see everybody around and just get in the community a little bit. I feel like that’s always been an important thing for me. So just continuing to do that, I feel like that’s a fun thing.”
But Philon wasn’t the only one giving back on Monday.
Counselor Jadon Sephes, 16, was once in the shoes of the campers as a sibling. For him, the camp offered a sense of normalcy in his everyday life. Now he wants to pass that same feeling on to the campers.
“You’re forgetting that ‘I have to go through this and that’ during my daily day, and I can just be a normal kid without having to talk about what’s going on with my sibling or myself,” Sephes said.
Rebetti said that is the intention of the camp, serving as an equalizer and allowing campers to “just be themselves” as they navigate difficult circumstances.
“This place really is the place that equalizes everybody,” Rebetti said. “Whether you’re the primary person with cancer or you’re the sibling of a kid with cancer, it’s really hard to be either of those people, and this place is where it all comes together, and they just get to be siblings, and they just get to be friends, and they just get to be kids. … I think at the end of the day, they walk away with smiles and laughter and the sense that they really belong and are included in something super special.”
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