Camp Good Days Urging For Extra Funding

A beloved Rochester-area charity is looking for extra help as one organization changes how it funds programs.

Camp Good Days and Special Times helps kids with cancer but its mission could be at a loss when the united way cuts some funding.

The history between the United Way and Camp Good Days and Special Times runs deep.

They teamed up in the late 1980's.

"It has been a long productive relationship with the United Way and I can not say enough about how they have allowed us to do what we do," said James McCauley Jr., PAVE Coordinator at Camp Good Days and Special Times.

But after input from thousands of people and organizations, United Way's blueprint changed.

"We are trying to do a lot of good in a few areas," said Patricia Davis, Director of Community Investment for the United Way.

It's narrowing its effort to focus on things like education, child abuse, and elderly services.

And giving is down.

"We are not seeing the kind of dollars in our community that we did before," said Davis.

It means a significant cut in funding for the getaway for kids with cancer and a handful of other organizations.

"These were difficult decisions for us and way more applications came in than we could ever possibly fund," said Davis.

Camp Good Days will lose about $80,000 it gets from the community fund. That is about 30-percent of it's total United Way dollars.

Staff knows why but says it's tough.

"It is difficult for us to understand how one of those choices has to be we no longer want to give our active support to individuals dealing with cancer," said McCauley.

To help make up for lost dollars, the charity is urging people who give to let the united way know they want their money to go directly to Camp Good Days.

Camp Good Days will receive full funding through the summer.

And then it will receive $120,000 dollars each year until 2015 during the transition, the rest it will have to make up in that donor-designated giving.