The Quad was almost empty Sunday night except for nearly 30 people gathered in front of Hendricks Chapel.

The people cupped their hands around the candles they were holding to protect the flames from the wind.

“Your candles represent strength and remembrance. Although they may not be with us today, they will always be in our memory,” said Alexis Brown, an undeclared sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The group stood together in the biting cold as a part of “Light Up the Night with Remembrance,” a candle-lighting in memory of loved ones with cancer.

The ceremony was organized by the executive board of the Syracuse University chapter of Camp Kesem, a weeklong summer camp for children with parents who have or have had cancer, said Brown, one of the founders of the SU chapter.

Camp Kesem is a national organization that was created by a group of Stanford University students in 2000. It has 40 chapters in more than 20 states, Brown said.

She said the idea to bring the chapter to SU started with a group of her friends.

Students on the executive board fundraise all year, she said, with the goal of raising $15,000-$20,000 to hold the camp at no cost to campers.

From Aug. 19-23, campers ages 6-16 will board a bus from Syracuse to Camp Cayuga in the Pocono Mountains in Northeast Pennsylvania, Brown said.

Camp Kesem is a typical camp except for its “cabin chat,” which encourages campers to talk openly about cancer and death, Brown said.

The cabin chat will “help them not only cope,” but feel less alone, she said.

The camp’s name comes from the Hebrew word for “magic,” Brown said, which is one thing the camp tries to be for kids affected by cancer.

“We want to bring a little bit of magic to kids,” she said.

As the lighting continued, Redemption Acapella performed Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” at the bottom of the steps to the chapel.

Those present stood in a semicircle, with Brown and Jessica Pelaez, another co-founder, at the center.

Three soloists stepped out of line at different points in the song to deliver a soulful, understated rendition of the 1964 rhythm and blues song.

Brown and Pelaez asked participants to form a circle. A member of the executive board went around to light each student’s candle.

When the candles were lit, Brown invited everyone to shout the name of a loved one with cancer. After a short pause, participants started calling out names.

“Barbara Ford.” “David Williams.”

While many of those gathered shouted the names of friends or relatives, Amber Taylor called out her own name.

During the summer, 16-year-old Taylor found a peanut-sized lump in her breast. An avid summer camp participant, she assumed it was a cyst, probably from being so active.

Her doctor told her it would heal with water and Motrin.

But it didn’t heal. She was diagnosed with breast cancer during her junior year of high school. She played basketball and volleyball, but quit both after her diagnosis.

Still, she graduated from her high school as valedictorian.

Although Taylor said she will be a three-year survivor on April 26, she said she is not in remission and that “there are still some struggles.”

Coming to the lighting, she said, meant “to be full again, to not feel broken” and to regain some sense of normalcy.

“I just keep going,” she said. “I do it for everyone who loves me.”

Published on April 15, 2013 at 1:42 am

Contact Natsumi: najisaka@syr.edu