Camp Quality was established in 1983
Founder, Vera Entwistle, immigrated to Australia from the USA.
Before leaving the USA, Vera read about a program designed to
provide support to the families of children living with cancer.
Part of the support provided was a commitment to bring fun and
laughter back into their lives.
On her arrival, Vera dedicated her time to establishing a
similar program. The program was recreation based and the idea was
to bring together a group of children living with cancer at a camp,
where they could participate in activities that they may have
missed out on because of their illness.
A doctor gave Vera the idea for a name when he told her, "No-one
can do anything about the quantity of anyone's life, but all of us
can do something about the quality." From this Camp Quality was
born.
In September 1983, 38 children and 38 volunteers attended the
first camp outside of Sydney at Vision Valley.
In 1988 an educational puppet program was introduced
Its purpose was to educate children about cancer and to dispel
the myths and concerns that many children have about cancer. This
free program quickly grew to visiting over 1000 schools a year, and
in 1989 became known as the McDonald's Camp Quality Puppets.
In 2001 the logo was changed to the smiling face
of Giggle
Since then, Camp Quality has been syonymous with
bringing laughter, fun therapy and optimism to children living with
cancer and their families.
Now
Camp Quality operates programs in every State and Territory
throughout Australia. Thirteen offices run over 240 camps and
fun days and perform to over 250,000 school children each
year.
See our
three year trends