Camp Enchantment New Mexico

Camp Enchantment New Mexico (CENM) is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing a unique celebration of life through the healing power of the outdoors, events, and programs. Children, teens, and young adults affected by cancer participate free of charge, gifted by our community, ages 7-17 years, from all over the state of New Mexico. The camp is a weeklong sleep away camp and has been in existence for over 30 years. The campers, volunteers, and medical staff all benefit being involved in CENM. It’s a unique interaction for the medical staff to care for the children in this beautiful outdoor environment. The staff includes former campers and often young adults with cancer. They too benefit from leadership training and experience caring for an intense but very meaningful population of children. The experience is invaluable for the children themselves and their families. It gives these children of New Mexico a much-needed return of their youth, and the program gives the families of these children a much-needed reprieve from the intense responsibility of caring for a child with cancer. Many campers join the volunteer staff as counselors once they are too old to attend as campers. In fact, two of our board members who have outgrown camp and counselor status are also survivors and former campers. These outcomes attest to the achievement and success of Camp Enchantment. We are very proud that we were able to maintain a virtual camp experience for the two years during the pandemic, but we were also very excited to be going back in person for 2022. As also a testament to our commitment to keeping these children engaged, we had over 90 applications for the 2022 in person camp last year. These children and young adults are starving for the outdoor interactions that they missed for 2020-2021.