Camp “Ray of Hope” 2009

THE WILD WEST COMES TO ROMANIA

With the help of our many sponsors and donors, The Gunfight of the OK Corral was fought out at Ighiu, near Alba Iulia, Romania, together with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. This gunfight took place in front of thirty nine Romanian boys and one girl suffering from hemophilia, and they enjoyed every minute of it.

S.T.A.R. Children Relief was responsible for arranging and managing a holiday camp at Ighiu for the second year running. S.T.A.R. Children organized other hemophilia camps at Venus, on the Black Sea in 2006, and at Bazna in 2007.

The theme for this year’s camp was “The Wild West”, the Hacienda was the Terra Mythica Pension and the whole event was staged in June/July, 2009.

The Gunfight at the OK Corral was only one of the many activities enjoyed by the boys which included horseback riding, archery, soccer, basketball, swimming, boating, model making, and fashion and talent show.

Because of the nature of many of the activities and the children’s condition, medication was necessary to offset any effects of rough play and to administer infusions of factor needed, Doctors and Nurses were kept very busy. The best exercise for the children is no doubt swimming and the pool which, although small, was almost continually in use with the Physiotherapist, Andrew Clements, in almost permanent attendance. For the smaller children an inflatable above the ground pool was used and there was a separate area of water provided with inflatable boats and paddles for supervised use by the children. In was, in fact, necessary for the children, even the older ones, to be supervised during all activities.

Horseback riding took place at Deva, at a riding centre where the supervision was professional, all children being accompanied during their riding. This was a novel experience and they thoroughly enjoyed it. The meal was provided by the riding centre.


Arts and Crafts covered several projects: model making, decorating horseshoes, making cowboy vests, and making flying paper aeroplanes among others. Probably the most innovative project was the modification of stout paper bags to represent cowboy waistcoats which the children proudly presented during the fashion show.

Maintaining control of forty children, all of them boys with the exception of one girl, was not easy. Ensuring an on time round up to make sure that all children turn up for meals, that they retire to bed at the correct time, that they were always present for their scheduled activities, we turned to the tune of Elvira, by Oakridge Boys, which blasted so it could be heard through the entire camp.

The children were separated in four groups, with two counselors being in charge of each group.
The children were constantly supervised and accompanied by an adult even to the bathroom in such a way that the whereabouts of each child was known. This control was all the more necessary because of the children’s hemophilic condition. At bedtime the boys were checked in their rooms where each night they had a cabin chat about the days activities and life in general.

Overall S.T.A.R. Children, well done, you worked hard and you succeeded admirably in your aim to keep the children safe, happy, and active. I know I was happy and active!

Bill Boughton
Volunteer, United Kingdom