Milton Marks Family Camp returns to Walker Creek in beautiful West Marin September 13-15, 2024!
As always, camp is FREE OF CHARGE to our families. Please help us fund this year's camp
to support families with brain cancer now!
“ You don’t realize that your kids have taken on so much of your cancer. As we drove home at the end of the first camp we attended four years ago, we felt lke a weight had been lifted from our shoulders. Our kids were laughing, they were happy, they were loud, everything you dream of in a kid. Our whole drive home was just magic. It was something that we never thought we’d have again as a family. Since then, all year, every year, the kids ask over and over, 'When is camp?' They need it and we need it.”
It’s been 10 years since Abby Marks, PhD and Margaretta Page, RN came together to found Milton Marks Family Camp, and we can surely say that they have realized their dream of providing a transformational experience for kids and their families coping with a parent’s brain tumor.
Ten years on, we are still on a mission to heal families through compassion, creativity, and community. The Milton Marks Family Camp represents an unprecedented effort to address the needs of brain tumor patients and their families that reach beyond medical therapy.
MMFC is transformative: in our post-camp survey, 95% of family members feel that camp has made them feel less isolated and less alone in what they’re going through. And 100% of our child campers said that camp felt like a real community they were now a part of. Because camp volunteers include members of patients’ medical teams, families' relationships with their medical care is also transformed: After camp, 94% of families feel their doctors understand more about what they are going through. And 86% report that the camp makes them more able to be open with their medical team.
Our immersive model has an outsized impact on families. Camp brings together families every year to be with other people who get it, where their every need is met by our loving and dedicated staff, and where they form lasting bonds with other parents and kids who know what it’s like from the inside. We create the village that should always be there for them to show them that it’s possible, that they deserve such care, and love, and understanding. And fun!
It takes a lot of elbow grease to make this happen, and most of it is done pro-bono by our planning team and our volunteers: A team of approximately 50 dedicated people volunteer at the camp, including nurses, physicians, social workers and other healthcare professionals, trained youth counselors, therapists, musicians, art therapists, bodyworkers, spiritual care providers and portrait photographers. Several members of the volunteer team have personal experience with brain cancer. And in the past two years, four former child campers have returned to be on our volunteer staff, bringing the experience full-circle.
Camp is free for all families, many of whom have been considerably financially stretched by the illness.
For being able to make camp happen, we want to thank you, our donors. As the vast majority of our funding comes from individual donors, we could not do this without you. This year, we invite you also to learn more about camp. Come and volunteer this year and witness yourselves, spread the word, tell someone about this project, point them to our website, volunteer to host a house party to tell your friends!
Though our camp is held in the late summer/early fall, we raise nearly all of our funding for camp between November and January each year. This year, instead of mounting multiple campaigns (Giving Tuesday, Holiday, End of Year), we are mounting a single campaign with the goal of funding most of camp 2024. We hope you will continue to be a partner in what we are able to do for families coping with a parent’s brain tumor.
This work requires extra financial resources, and that’s why we are asking you to support the work of MMFC as generously as you can with a tax-deductible gift. Your support goes directly to the services MMFC will be providing this year both to returning and new camper families. Gifts of any amount are deeply appreciated!
Donations to MMFC are tax-deductible. Please use the enclosed slip and envelope to submit your gift by check, made out to Community Initiatives…or you may make a secure online credit card donation by going to www.miltonmarksfamilycamp.org and clicking on the “Donate” button.
With many thanks for all you do to sustain our vital program,
Abigail Levinson Marks, Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Director
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
With the generous help of our donors, we can cover all costs
for families who wish to attend. Your gift will enable us to
continue, and expand, the Milton Marks Neuro-Oncology Family Camp.
Donations can be made securely through this page, or if you
prefer to donate by check, please make payable to Community
Initiatives and indicate "Milton Marks Neuro-Oncology
Family Camp" on the memo line.
Checks can be mailed to:
Community Initiatives (FSP #6356)
PO Box 45515
San Francisco, CA 94145-0515
The Milton Marks Neuro-Oncology Family Camp is under the
fiscal sponsorship of Community Initiatives, a 501(c)3 non-profit,
so your donation is tax-deductible.
EIN: 94-3255070
Should you have any questions please contact us at MiltonMarksFamilyCamp@gmail.com
