Dare to Dream Atlanta is an annual evening gala and silent/live auction event benefitting Aurora Day Camp. Aurora Day Camp is a proud member of the Sunrise Association whose mission is to bring back the joys of childhood to children with cancer and their siblings world-wide, through the creation of Day Camps, Year–Round Programs and In-Hospital Recreational Activities, all offered free of charge, right here in Atlanta. In the last year alone, the Sunrise Association has served over 5,000 children worldwide.
 
Aurora Day Camp is Georgia’s only full-summer day camp for children with cancer and their siblings ages 3 ½ - 16. Aurora Day Camp changes months of loneliness and isolation into summers filled with sunshine, laughter and happiness. And because Aurora is a day camp, it does all this while allowing the children to continue their medical treatment and enjoy the comfort and safety of their own homes at night. Aurora Fun-days, our year-round reunion programs reunite campers with their friends throughout the year. Our volunteer driven in-hospital program, Aurora on Wheels, provides camp like programs and craft/activity bags (Aurora Anytime Bags) at both Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta locations. In the past year alone, over 1,100 children have benefitted from the distraction and joy provided by Aurora on Wheels and Aurora Anytime Bags.
 
We think about the big things that cancer takes away all the time – the birthdays, the vacations, the first day of school – but there are many small things it takes away too – the family dinners that are ruined because of nausea, the visit to a friends’ house due to fear of infection, the special evenings abruptly ended when a child needs to be rushed to the emergency room because of a spike in fever. Cancer takes away so much from not only our kids, but their families too – which is why everything we do at Aurora is an attempt to bring a little bit of normalcy back to our kids who had to grow up too soon.
 
All we want to do is give the children a magical seven-week long summer, provide wonderful reunion programsthroughout the year, and get into the hospitals and help children through grueling chemotherapy treatments. All of this cannot be done without community support. And without supporters, there is no camp. Rightly so, this evening benefit is called Dare to Dream, and it is about believing in the magic of camp, and the joy of a normal childhood. The event will consistent of a cocktail hour, silent and live auctions, dinner, honoree ceremony recognizing our community partners, and a mission call that encourages attendees to help send kids to camp through their donations. Our fourth annual event will take place on Saturday, November 5th at Factory Atlanta from 5:30-9:30pm and is expected to host approximately 250-300 attendees.
 
Our goal is to raise $275,000. Without these critical funds, we would be unable to provide camp to the children of Atlanta. We would be very grateful for any donation that you could make to support this event.