© 2024 WUGA | University of Georgia
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

UGA Football Players Visiting Children with Cancer at Camp Sunshine

Members of the UGA football team will making their annual visits to Camp Sunshine beginning Tuesday, June 18th. The facility serves children who have had or who currently have cancer.

Steven Colquitt is an Associate Sports Communications Director for UGA Athletics.

“Camp Sunshine and the UGA connection goes back to when Coach [Vince] Dooley was heading up the football program,” Colquitt said. “It’s been a positive experience all around, really for both sides.”

Head football coach Kirby Smart has a personal connection with Camp Sunshine.

“Coach Smart has a brother who dealt with cancer as a child and was a camper at Camp Sunshine.”

Colquitt says players interact with in a variety of ways. Players engage in arts and crafts, have campers paint their faces, give interviews on the camp’s radio station, which are heard in Rutledge, Georgia and more.

“The highlight is at the very end, the campers and players will reconvene in the, thankfully, air conditioned gym, and play a pretty spirited game of dodgeball.”

He says that game is a morale-booster for the campers.

“There are campers who may not feel great because of chemo treatments or because of just a lack of energy, but when they know the Georgia Bulldogs are coming and they know the dodgeball game is in play, they start feeling better a lot faster.  They do not want to miss that moment,” according to Colquitt.  

This week players meeting with the older campers who are preteens and teens, next week they meet with the youngest children.