As a teenager, Michele “Gill” McKenna attended The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a free camp experience for children with serious illnesses.
McKenna had cancer, and the experience helped her survive. Today, she’s the director of the camp’s Hospital Outreach Program across the Mid-Atlantic region. The Philadelphia resident and 44-year-old is also a mother to her own five children.
In what ways did The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp help you?
The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp is a magical community where I found other kids who were facing similar medical challenges, and I realized that I was so much more than a kid with cancer.
The staff works to create intentional programming that is super fun and designed for campers to challenge themselves in an environment that celebrates every achievement.
As a pre-teen who recently lost her hair and had to withdraw from school, camp helped me rediscover who I was and all that I was capable of. The Hospital Outreach Program (HOP) brings similar programming into the hospital, where kids are receiving treatment, and recreates those same feelings of being more than your illness.
How did you end up working at the camp that once helped you?
I first attended camp in 1989, the second year it was open. I was a bald 12-year-old girl still in active treatment and very much apprehensive that this would be a camp where we had to sit around a campfire and talk about our feelings.
I could not have been more wrong!
I embarked on a week where I forgot about being sick and laughed, danced and tried so many activities. Towards the end, my counselors could see how tired I was getting and arranged for a breakfast-in-bed morning for the cabin.
That evening, I realized that breakfast in bed was not a scheduled activity and that the counselors had made a special request so that I would get the rest my body needed.
That was the moment I realized that I wanted to be that person for kids when I was older.
I continued to attend camp and its leadership programs until I was old enough to apply for an all-summer staff position.
I worked for the summer program for six summers, helped to make a lot of special memories and loads of laughter with some incredible campers and made some of my best friends, including another counselor who I would eventually marry.
What do you tell kids?
When I am working bedside with a family, I am always looking to match the energy in the room. Sometimes folks are feeling sick or tired and just need to do a lowkey activity, and sometimes folks are feeling good and are bored and looking for something more involved or rowdy.
Do you have a different mode/persona that you go into when you’re mothering your own five children?
I bet my kids would say I am way more fun at work, but I don’t have to make sure the kids at work are doing their homework and cleaning their rooms!
I would say that my fundamental approach to parenting is driven by the same principles I learned as a counselor at The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp and as the director of the Hospital Outreach Program.
I try to meet my kids where they are, and we like to provide several choices that ultimately lead to a common goal. Homework needs to get done, but they can choose to do it during study hall at school, right after school or after dinner.
Being a kid/teen is stressful and everyone benefits from feeling supported during challenging times and celebrating all the big and small successes that happen each day.
Family Favorites
Way to spend a good weekend: With five kids playing sports, a good weekend is a sunny day on a soccer field or a riverbank watching my kids play soccer or compete in crew/rowing races.
Game: We love to play Codenames as a family and Taco Goat Cheese Pizza. It’s a great way to get some of our competitive energy out!
Meal: My kids would say my meatballs and marinara sauce, but I dream about the tuna carpaccio and breadbasket at Parc.
Vacation spot: We love to spend a week on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake in June and, of course, no summer is complete without a trip to the Jersey Shore.
