Children undergoing cancer treatment will soon be able to trade hospital rooms for campfires, canoe trips and summer camp – without leaving their medical care behind. 

The federal government is putting more than $27 million toward Campfire Circle’s new medically supported overnight camp in Prince Edward County, as the charity raises money of its own with a roughly 1,000-kilometre cycling journey from Toronto to Quebec City. 

Campfire Circle provides medically supported camp programs for children with cancer and other serious illnesses, including programs delivered in pediatric hospitals across Ontario.

The new Prince Edward County facility will expand its overnight programming to more children in eastern Ontario, with the organization aiming to serve 10,000 children and families annually by 2030, according to CEO of Campfire Circle Alex Robertson. 

“The whole impetus behind it was to help ensure that more kids with cancer and serious illness could come to camp,” Robertson said in an interview with iPolitics.

The fundraising first started in 2018, with the original destination as New York City. This year, the organization has now surpassed $1.3 million, he said.

“I think the idea is that it’s a community of varieties who come together and they ride with people over 950 km ,” Robertson said.

The funding would also go to support bringing medical staff to camp, and aims to be free of cost for families to participate, Robertson added.

The funding comes through Ottawa’s $51 billion Build Community Strong Fund, which supports community infrastructure projects across the country like from “playground to podium.” 

For Secretary of State of Sport Adam van Koeverden, this announcement was also personal. 

van Koeverden was among the nine cyclists who took part in Campfire Circle’s first fundraising ride in 2018. It was an experience, he says, that helped convince him to leave his job and put his name on a ballot. 

“I had a job that I liked, but it didn’t feel big enough,” van Koeverden said in an interview with iPolitics. “When we were riding down in New York City with this group… We raised $90,000, and I realized when you participate in big things, you can get really important work done.”

Standing  in front of the Centennial Flame Thursday morning alongside a few dozen cyclists, van Koeverden prepared to rejoin the ride for part of its journey from Ottawa to Buckingham, Quebec.  

van Koeverden added that Ottawa’s contribution is intended to help get the project off the ground and encourage philanthropists, the private sector and other levels of government to come on board. 

“The greatest injustice is that kids get cancer sometimes, there’s nothing worse than that, ” he said. 

“So we can work hard and make sure that they get what they deserve.” 

The funding comes under the Build Communities Strong Fund, which consists of a total of $51 billion