student campers take "chernobyl heart challenge," & save a life

Last year Delaware mom Julie Klabunde  and her daughter, Riley, saw Chernobyl Heart, the 2004 film that follows Chernobyl Children's Project International through Chernobyl affected regions of Belarus. (If you haven't seen Chernobyl Heart, you can watch it now on CCPI's Channel on YouTube.) 

Riley went online, found our website, and learned about our drive to raise funds for life saving children's heart surgeries in Ukraine.  Mother and daughter sprang into action.  Julie owns the Adventure Kids Summer Day Camp in Wilmington, and Riley is a junior counselor.  They organized a screening of Chernobyl Heart, and quickly convinced the camp staff to dedicate summer 2007 to one child's heart.

All summer long, the camp sold candy and lemonade to raise funds for one heart surgery, and made bracelets for all the young patients.  Pictured above, you can see a photo of a bulletin board the campers put together to rally everyone around the cause.

I hope the kids of Adventure Kids Summer Day Camp fully realize that, through their direct action, they will save the life another child -- one of the 6000 children born yearly in Ukraine with heart defects. More than 50% of the children in Ukraine who need life saving operations will not get them. Between now and the end of the year, the support of donors like the Adventure Kids will allow us to send volunteer surgical teams to 4 different regions of  Ukraine to perform operations and train their fellow professionals. The first team arrives at Kharkiv's Institute of General and Urgent Surgery this May 25th.

The Adventure Kids of Wilmington, Delaware join supporters like the students of Glenbard East High School, Cedar-N-Sage, Karakorum Racing, grandmother Judy Bevilacqua, PanRight Productions, and many more individuals who are finding creative ways to make sure these kids get the operations they need to live.  Thanks Adventure Kids, and all of our sponsors!