Dallas, Texas based Heart of Gold Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for medically challenged and needy children who, without the organization’s help, might never get the attention they need. Funds raised by the Foundation primarily go to send children in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with heart disease to summer camp with appropriate medical facilities to meet their special needs.
Camp Moss, is an annual week-long summer camp at the Camp John Marc facility in North Texas. Heart of Gold funded Camp Moss is for children who have had heart surgeries, with its focus on bolstering campers’ self esteem by building strong relationships with peers who have also had heart diseases. “I can do it” is the attitude the camp seeks to cultivate in each camper.
Heart of Gold also helps staff Camp Moss with doctors, nurses and the medical equipment the kids need in order to have a true summer camp experience, as well as providing golf carts to convey kids between activities as needed and to transport luggage.
The Foundation extols the healing powers of fishing, horseback riding, water balloon fighting, meeting new friends and just being silly have on kids who’ve had a life of deprivation because of heart surgeries.
To see a feature by Eileen Gonzalez on Camp Moss on Dallas’ Channel 11 from June 27, 2006 , click here.
The Heart of Gold Foundation’s work brings a little more happiness to families that may be beleaguered with not only the financial burden of paying medical bills, but with the mental burden of watching their child struggle.
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In 1987, John Marc Myers, a nine-year-old Dallas boy died from a form of bone cancer known as osteogenic sarcoma. John Marc had enjoyed spending time outdoors and had a special passion for spotting deer, turkey, and other wildlife at Old Sundown, his family’s Bosque County ranch.
In 1988 John Marc’s parents, Jan and Marc Myers generously donated 135 acres of land from the ranch in Meridian, Texas (85 miles southwest of Dallas), in honor of their son and dedicated to become a special needs camp facility’s home site. Thanks to the Myers’ gift, thousands of kids with chronic illnesses and/or major physical disabilities such as Sickle-cell Disease, burn survivors, heart disease, boys with Hemophilia, Muscular dystrophy, cancer, brain injuries, HIV/AIDS, Spina bifida, and more living in the Dallas/Fort Worth area are now able to experience and enjoy the same land that had meant so much to their son.
Today, with this year marking 25 years since its opening, Camp John Marc is a year-round therapeutic camp for Texas-area children currently hosting eleven week-long summer camps and over 25 weekend camps per season, with an average of more than 3,000 children, teens, and family members attending a Camp John Marc camp each year.
Camp facilities include an eight-acre lake and fishing pier, a covered wagon and treehouse-themed camping areas, a beach-access pool, an arts and crafts building, a medical building, an athletic field, a multipurpose barn, a challenge course, an amphitheater, nature trails, a riding arena, a dining hall, 20 cabins, the Morning Star chapel, and the Silo activity building.
In 2013, Heart of Gold added two additional children’s organizations to those it supports: The Texas Scottish Rite Hospital and their Camp Out on a Limb, which provides a camp experience for children between the ages of 5 and 17 with multiple limb amputations or with a rotation plasty, and the Foundation’s Children’s House at Baylor, which provides a week at camp for children treated at Baylor hospitals.
Camp Moss 2015 will be held from June 20 – June 26.
For more information, visit:
http://www.heartofgoldus.org/
This year Heart of Gold has launched a GoFundMe crowdsourcing campaign under the name Camp Moss Children’s Cardiac Care. For more information, visit:
http://www.gofundme.com/swv5as
If you would like to contribute to Heart of Gold Foundation’s work directly, checks can be mailed to
Heart of Gold Foundation
4347 W. Northwest Highway
Suite 120
Dallas, Texas 75220
OR:
Via PayPal
or email [email protected]
